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THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 




“And then I swept by like a cyclone.” 


See p. 158. 

Frontispiece. 
















































































































THE 


General Manager’s Story 


OLD-TIME REMINISCENCES OF RAILROADING 
IN THE UNITED STATES 


BY 

HERBERT ELLIOTT HAMBLEN 

AUTHOR OF " ON MANY SEAS ” 


Nefo Jgork 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

LONDON : MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 

1907 


All rights reserved 



Copyright, 1897, 

By HERBERT ELLIOTT HAMBLEN. 
Copyright, 1898, 

By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 


Set up and electrotyped. Published April, 1898. Reprinted 
August, 1907. 





Norfooob $K8ss 

J. S. Cushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 


09 - 


To 


THE RAILROAD MEN OF THE UNITED STATES 


I 


I 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Introduction i 

CHAPTER I 

\ 

Leaves Home 5 

CHAPTER II 

Learning to jump 11 

CHAPTER III 

Breaking in 26 

CHAPTER IV 

A Clever Trick 36 

CHAPTER V 

A Mistake in Order . . 46 

CHAPTER VI 

A Railroad Autocrat 59 

CHAPTER VII 

Catches a Tartar 70 

CHAPTER VIII 

Promoted to the Left Side 85 

vii 


Vlll 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER IX 

PAGE 

Chasing a Run-away 109 

CHAPTER X 

At the Throttle . .131 

CHAPTER XI 

In the Nick of Time 151 

CHAPTER XII 

Fifty-two Hours on Duty 174 

CHAPTER XIII 

A Ten Per Cent Cut 200 

CHAPTER XIV 

We strike 218 

CHAPTER XV 

Joys of Tramping 236 

CHAPTER XVI 

Sons of Rest 249 

CHAPTER XVII 

Hired again 266 

CHAPTER XVIII 

I lose my Nerve . 281 

CHAPTER XIX 

My Turn at Last 299 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


“ And then I swept by like a cyclone” (p. 158) . Frontispiece 

FACING PAGE 

“ It was certainly a high jump ” 20 

“ I delighted in catching and riding on the most swiftly 

flying cars ” 32 

“ 1 watch that grimy left hand on the throttle ” . . *41 

“ Her engineer shouted something that we couldn’t catch ” 44 

“ They met exactly under the bridge ” .... 48 

“ It wasn’t long before I crawled under the truck ” *53 

“ 1 Mr. Grinnell, your engine truck centre casting is broken 

all to pieces ’ ” 83 

“We found the gentleman sitting with his feet cocked up 

on his desk, smoking ” 99 

“ 1 You’ve forced yourself on here where you’re not 

wanted’” 116 

“We found grooves nearly a quarter of an inch deep ” . 14 1 

“ She was a beautiful sight! No stack, no pilot, no head 

lamp ” 144 

“ 1 Section foreman’s got a rail up 152 

“ And now I saw ahead of me a man in the middle of the 

track ” 156 


X 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


FACING PAGE 

u Looked along the barrel of a big revolver ”... 200 

u The wrecking train was hardly ever idle ”... 204 

u 1 Sa-ay ! you’ve nominated about everybody ’ ” . . . 216 

“ The clerks in the offices were hustled out into the yard ” 232 

“ The night shut down on a dreary scene of smoking deso- 
lation ” 234 

Roundhouse Studies 266 

“ He nearly squelched the breath out of my body ” . . 297 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


INTRODUCTION 

“ Do I remember my first day’s railroading ? In- 
deed I do, my boy, although it was nearly forty years 
ago. Yes, I remember it, and every day’s railroad- 
ing I have done since.” The speaker was General 
Manager M of a great railroad system branch- 

ing out from Chicago, the lines of which form the 
connecting link between that great metropolis and 
hundreds of cities and towns far away on the prai- 
ries, or among the mountains, giving employment 
to thousands of men, and furnishing the means of 

transportation to thousands more. Mr. M , who 

had been a lifelong friend of my father, was a fine old 
gentleman, with a ruddy, jovial countenance, kindly 
blue eyes, and I think the most beautiful silvery hair 
I have ever seen. 

When he grasped your hand, and bade you wel- 
come, and asked what he could do for you, as he 
had done to me the previous evening, on my arrival 
at his summer home, away up in the glorious moun- 
tains of Nevada, you felt a thrill as of a gentle elec- 


2 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


trie shock go through your veins, and your heart 
went out to the old gentleman at once. 

I knew from my father that Mr. M was a self- 

made man, and had worked his way up from the 
very lowest station of railroad life by sheer force of 
indomitable will, perseverance, and fidelity to duty, 
until he was then the sole guiding spirit in the opera- 
tion of thousands of miles of a great American 
railroad system, — a position which calls for great 
managerial ability. 

He who would hold such an immense system in 
the hollow of his hand, as it were, must be capable 
of quick thought in an emergency, keen and abso- 
lutely correct judgment, — for mistakes in railroading 
are costly investments, — and a knowledge of the 
business in its minutest details that is almost mar- 
vellous to contemplate. 

How little does the average passenger realize, 
when he steps on the sumptuously furnished car, 
and quietly reads the newspaper, until the brakeman 
calls out his station, and he steps off to go to his 
family, or his business, that his train has been under 
the keen supervision of an army of trained officials 
and employees during every minute of its progress ; 
that its arrival at, and departure from, each station 
has been ticked over the wire to the train despatcher ; 
that all meeting-points with other trains have been 
carefully prepared for; that rules and orders have 
been issued providing for every possible contin- 
gency; that, in fact, as an old railroad man said to 


INTRODUCTION 


3 

me once, “If everybody obeyed orders, collisions 
would be possible only when brought about by un- 
avoidable accidents.” 

These men are carefully chosen, and only long and 
faithful service, a strictly first-class moral character, 
and undoubted ability to perform the duties of the 
position, will insure their promotion to the higher 
offices, or their retention in them. 

Promotion on a railroad is slow, and for merit 
only. 

At the head of this band of experts, over the 
superintendents, stands the General Manager, a walk- 
ing epitome of railroad knowledge. Tried by many 
years of service in minor positions and proved trust- 
worthy in all, he is the one chosen from many as the 
best fitted for this responsible position. 

As I looked at the old gentleman sitting there so 
comfortably in his big rush-bottomed rocking-chair, 
lazily blowing the smoke from his “ perfecto ” out 
into the cool starlight, the personification of ease and 
wealth, I found it hard to believe that those plump, 
rosy palms had ever been calloused by contact with 
the iron brake-wheel, or the fireman’s scoop-shovel; 
but I knew they had, and I knew too that even now 
he would not hesitate a moment to leave his luxu- 
rious home and go out in the stormiest night to a 
wreck, to render such assistance as his ripe experi- 
ence in all branches of the service eminently fitted 
him to give. 

I had arrived in answer to a cordial invitation to 


4 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


pass my vacation with him in his summer eyrie half- 
way up the mountain side. 

Born and brought up in a small railroad town, I 
had always been an ardent though bashful admirer 
of the grimy-visaged, weather-beaten fellows who, 
night and day, in darkness, fog, and storm, speed 
fearlessly over the glistening steel rails to their 
journey’s end, or down to death, as their fate may 
determine. 

So, when I found myself placed in such extremely 
favorable circumstances for obtaining a fund of 
genuine railroad lore, I was bound to improve the 
opportunity, and gradually drew out from my vet- 
eran friend the story which follows, and which I 
shall tell as nearly as possible in his own words, 
hoping that it may prove as interesting to the reader 
as it did to me. 


CHAPTER I 


HIS EARLY LIFE AT HOME — HE BECOMES ENAMOURED 
OF THE RAILROAD — SEES A TRAIN BREAK IN TWO 
ON A HEAVY GRADE — NEGLECTS HIS STUDIES TO 
WATCH AND ADMIRE THE TRAINS — FAILS IN HIS 
EXAMINATIONS AT THE ACADEMY AND LEAVES IN 

DISGRACE TAKING THE FIRST TRAIN OUT OF 

TOWN 

My father was a stern puritanical clergyman, who 
considered a smile on the Sabbath to be a sin, and a 
hearty laugh, even on a week day, a grievous breach 
of decorum ; and as I was always of an exceedingly 
mirthful disposition, I was almost constantly under 
the ban of parental displeasure, and through some 
innate depravity of my nature, I suppose, I always 
felt an aversion to any line of business that would 
compel me to be always studying the proprieties of 
dress and manners. I felt a sort of good-natured con- 
tempt for my companions in the village academy, who 
looked forward to a position in a bank as the most 
desirable opening to be had, while I longed for a life 
in the open air, without too many refinements, even 
with a dash of roughness in it, and if with a spice of 
adventure or danger, all the better. 

Our home was so situated that it overlooked a long 
5 


6 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


heavy grade on the local railroad, and I used fre- 
quently to watch with the greatest interest the freight 
trains as they slowly and laboriously puffed and 
tugged up the hill, the brakemen sitting — if it hap- 
pened to be pleasant weather — on their brake- 
wheels, with folded arms, and hat brims flapping in 
the breeze, monarchs of all they surveyed. Some- 
times they would, for some cause at that time un- 
known to me, stop on a slight curve nearly in front 
of our place, and then there would be a great shout- 
ing and waving of arms and hats. Sometimes the 
conductor would come up over the top of the train, 
and jaw at the engineer, who apparently never failed 
to give him fully as good as he sent ; then if they 
failed to start again, they would cut the train in two 
in the middle, and take half of it up at a time, to a 
convenient side-track at the top, where it would be 
coupled together again and proceed on its way. 

But it was on the down trips that I got excited. 
As soon as the engine pitched over the hill with cars 
enough to keep up the speed, the engineer would 
shut off his steam, and the train, gathering headway 
from its own weight, would whirl down the grade at 
a great rate. The engineer would blow his whistle, 
and the brakemen, running lightly over the tops of 
the bounding and rocking cars, that seemed every 
minute as if they must leave the tracks and pile 
themselves in the ditch, would twist up the brakes 
with a vim as though they would tear them out by the 
roots — and oh! how I admired them then! What 


LEAVES HOME 


7 


a glorious thing it must be, I thought, to feel within 
one’s self the courage and self-reliance necessary to 
enable one to speed over the top of that reeling 
train, and, as it were, tame it in its wild flight, and 
bring it under control, or to a perfect standstill. 
Yes, my boy, there’s poetry even in a freight brake- 
man’s life, though you mightn’t think it. 

There was one fellow — I remember him as well as 
if it had been but yesterday, — a big, tall, strapping 
man — a perfect Hercules. He always rode out near 
the middle of the train when going down the hill, and 
I fancied that I could see the train perceptibly slow 
up every time that he set a brake. One day his 
train broke in two a couple of cars ahead of where 
he sat. I noticed a gradually widening gap between 
the cars, and he soon spied it too ; for he leaped to 
his feet, let a wild yell out of him to attract the 
engineer’s attention, pulled off his straw hat, and 
swung it in a full-arm vertical circle in front of him, 
and having thus signalled the engineer, commenced 
to set brakes with all his might ; for you see when 
a train breaks in two on a down grade, the first 
result is, that the head section draws away from the 
rear one ; but as it is pushing the locomotive with all 
its machinery, the rear section, unless checked by 
the brakes, will gain in speed so much faster that it 
will crash into it, resulting in some of the worst 
wrecks known to railroad men. When the engineer 
gets a signal that his train is broken in two, or dis- 
covers the fact himself, by looking back on a curve, 


8 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


he instantly “pulls out” and runs as fast as possible 
to get away from the rear section, at the same time 
giving the whistle signal for “broke in two,” to notify 
the train crew, so that they can get out and stop 
their end. 

Well, it seems that in this case the engineer either 
saw the head brakeman signal or discovered the 
break himself, for I saw the head end dart away, 
and heard four long blasts of the whistle repeated 
again and again. The train men responded promptly 
and did their level best to stop their half ; but the 
hill was so steep and the train had got such headway 
on it, and so quickly, that even with all brakes set, 
and the fire flying from the wheels in showers, they 
went down that grade like a stone dropping down 
a well. I had an unobstructed view of the track for 
several miles, and watched with the keenest interest 
this novel race. At first it seemed as if the loco- 
motive gained quite rapidly, and by the volumes of 
black smoke pouring out of her stack I knew that 
the engineer was giving it to her for all she was 
worth. After awhile she seemed barely to hold her 
own, and then the rear section seemed to gain on 
the one ahead ; but as they were now well down the 
road, this might have been partly due to perspective. 
Anyway, I saw that they finally got the rear part 
stopped ; the engine, that had now got half a mile 
or more away from them, backed up on getting 
a signal, coupled on, and away they went. 

This incident — which, as I afterwards learned, 


LEAVES HOME 


9 


was a very common occurrence — so fired my im- 
agination from the heroism of the big brakeman, 
whose prompt action had prevented a wreck with the 
consequent loss of thousands of dollars’ worth of 
property, and very likely some human lives, that I 
determined to devote my life to railroading. I lost 
all interest in my studies, could fix my mind on 
nothing, and passed all my spare time, and a good 
deal that I could not afford to spare, in watching 
the trains, and constructing in imagination won- 
derful cases of lives and property saved by my 
individual prowess when I should become a railroad 
man. 

Shortly after this our annual examination came off 
at the academy, and as I had neglected my studies 
of late, I failed wofully. My father was a sorely 
disappointed man, and notified me in very plain 
terms that he could not afford to keep me another 
year at school, and as I had — so he said — disgraced 
him by my miserable failure, he would be pleased if 
I could find some occupation, at least for awhile, 
away from my native place. In conclusion he 
handed me two ten-dollar bills, saying, that while 
he could not spare me any more just at present, he 
did not wish a son of his to be short of anything that 
a young man in my station ought to have, and told 
me in case I failed to obtain satisfactory employment 
before my money was gone, not to hesitate about 
writing for more, or coming home again in case I 
failed to find any employment at all, which he broadly 


10 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


hinted he expected would be the case, as I had 
already begun life so disastrously. 

You may well believe that this lecture was quite 
a set-back to me, for I had certainly not contemplated 
anything so harsh as what was really neither more nor 
less than being turned out of doors. I was proud and 
stubborn, however, so I thanked him kindly for the 
money, and told him I guessed I could hoe my own 
row all right, to which he replied stiffly, “ I presume 
so,” and asked me if I had any plans for the future 
which I cared to confide to him. I answered just as 
stiffly, “ None at all, sir,” and left his presence for- 
ever. I had a tearful scene with mother and the 
girls, and declining their earnest entreaties to remain 
in the house at least until morning, I packed a small 
valise and took the first train out of town. 


CHAPTER II 


HE ARRIVES LATE AT NIGHT AT THE JUNCTION 

SEEKING EMPLOYMENT — FALLS INTO STRANGE AD- 
VENTURES — IS HAZED BY A VETERAN BRAKEMAN 

HEARS DISCOURAGING TALES — TAKES LESSONS 

— LEARNING TO JUMP — YARDMASTER’S ADVICE — 
DEATH IN THE YARD — r HIRED 

As I had never before been ten miles from the 
house I was born in, the novelty of the train ride 
served to distract my mind from dwelling too much 
on my unpleasant condition. Besides, as I had fully 
made up my mind to enter the railroad service, I 
took a great interest in all I saw pertaining to the 
business; and when the conductor, a little, wiry, 
quick, nervous old fellow, with a long gray beard, 
and gorgeous in blue cloth, brass buttons, and a 
shiny badge, came through the train, I with difficulty 
repressed my desire to confide in him my mission on 
earth. But he had a cold, fishy eye, so he escaped. 

We arrived at eleven o’clock at night at the end of 
our run, which I found next day to be a junction with 
a large road whose western terminus was at Chicago. 
I put up at a hotel near the station, and after break- 
fast the next morning, made my way down to the 


ii 


12 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


railroad yard, which I could see quite plainly from 
the hotel piazza. 

The sound of the switch engines as they puffed to 
and fro, and the bang and rattle of the cars as they 
were rammed together, was music to me, and served 
to strengthen my resolution to become a railroad 
man. That I might not find employment never 
occurred to me ; for being so perfectly and beautifully 
green, I didn’t know there was in existence an art 
called “ hunting a job.” So it was with a rather 
benign and philanthropic feeling that I slowly wan- 
dered down there, and stood for some time watching 
the flying cars, and wondering what was accomplished 
by the work I saw in progress, for to me it seemed 
to be entirely aimless. An engine would back into 
a track, couple on, and then after dragging the cars 
out, would kick them all over the yard, only to go to 
another track and do the same thing over again, 
while other engines would take the cars she had 
kicked and distribute them elsewhere. 

After watching them for nearly an hour, and fail- 
ing to discover what their object was, I walked along 
towards the other end of the yard, where I came 
across an old man with a wooden leg, who was trim- 
ming switch lamps. I watched him awhile, and as 
he appeared to have plenty of time, I stepped up to 
him, and raising my hat politely, said, — 

“ Good morning, sir.” 

He looked at me in a surprised manner, and then 
after looking everywhere else, came to the conclusion, 


LEARNING TO JUMP 


13 


apparently, that it must have been himself that I 
addressed, as he could see no one else. So he 
replied rather sheepishly, though in a not unfriendly 
manner, — 

“ Good mornin’.” 

“ This is a fine railroad you have here, sir,” said I. 

“Yas, on’y ’tain’t mine,” said he; “b’longs mostly 
ter the comp’ny, I guess.” 

I told him I knew that, of course, asked him what 
road it was, and what was the proper way to obtain 
employment there. 

He sized me up with a quick, comprehensive 
glance, and said they could tell me all about that in 
the office, but I told him I didn’t want to work in the 
office, I wanted to work on the cars. 

Just then another old fellow came up. He had 
only one eye, and a terrible scar ran diagonally 
across his face from eyebrow to chin. This had 
crushed and distorted his nose, drawn one corner of 
his left eye down, and the opposite corner of his 
mouth up, thereby showing a couple of filthy, 
tobacco-stained tusks, and giving him the most re- 
pulsive appearance of any human being I ever 
saw. 

His overalls were black with dirt, and so shiny with 
grease that when the sun shone on him he glistened 
like a crow. His left arm was cut off just below the 
elbow, and finished out with a three-pronged iron 
hook, in which he carried a great iron pail filled with 
colored cotton waste soaked in oil. 


14 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


In his right and only hand he had what I took to 
be a mammoth coffee-pot, but which was in reality 
an oil-can. 

When I first caught sight of his horrible features I 
was startled, but the distortion at the corner of his 
mouth caused me to think that he was trying to 
smile a welcome, so again I lifted my hat, and bade 
him good morning ; but without taking the slightest 
notice of me, he stepped up to a box car, set his load 
down on the ground, lifted the cover of an axle-box 
with his hook, thrust it in, and pulling out a lot of 
dry black waste, turned to my friend the lamp- 
trimmer, and holding it up, said, — 

“Looker that, Joe; d’ye ever see the way these 
furrin cars comes inter the yard now’ days ? Dry’s a 
powder horn; no wonder they burn off journals, 
an’ break down, an’ block the road. Since ole Bees- 
wax died, ’n’ they got that blasted young clerk in here 
fer yardmaster, everything’s gone to the devil. The 
first thing he does is to cut down the caboose sup- 
plies, till not one conductor out o’ three’s got a dope 
bucket ; an’ then I have ter cart a carload o’ dope 
round the yard every day, ’n’ it all comes o’ puttin’ 
boys that don’t know nothin’ about practical rail- 
roadin’ over men that furgits more every night than 
they’ll ever know. Ter blazes with sich dam-fool 
management, I say,” and he fired the kiln-dried waste 
on the ground in disgust, and commenced vigorously 
ramming in a lot of the mixture from his pail which 
he called “dope,” all the time swearing away and 


LEARNING TO JUMP 


15 


wondering what “ole Beeswax” would say if he could 
see how things were being run into the ground and 
destroyed by his unworthy successor. 

“ Why, Mike,” said the lamp-trimmer, “ here’s 
a man for you,” indicating me by a sort of jerk 
of the head, which enabled him to point towards 
me with the old clay pipe he was affectionately 
sucking. 

“ Man for who ? What do I want of a man ? 
Guess yer gittin’ loony,” said Mike. 

“Why, didn’t I hear you say last night that you 
wanted another brakeman ? He wants to learn to be 
a brakeman.” 

“ Oh ! ” said Mike, stopping his work at once and 
leaning lazily up against the side of the car, while 
his disfigured features assumed a different expression, 
which I presume indicated interest. “So ye want 
to learn to be a brakeman, boy ? What road are ye 
off of ? Ben a water boy, I s’pose ? ” 

I told him I had never worked anywhere yet ; was, 
in fact, just from school. 

“ Well, I’ll tell ye what you do now, sonny : you 
jest run right back to school an’ keep away from 
the railroad ; ’tain’t no good. I’ve been a brakeman 
twenty-seven years; so’s Joe there. See this pa- 
tent safety coupler?” (holding up his hook); “got 
that brakin’. Conductor said if I couldn’t couple 
cars when they was cornin’ together quicker ’n chain 
lightnin’, I’d better hunt another job, in a dry-goods 
store or somethin’. Wish’t I had now ; might 0’ had 


1 6 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

two old-fashioned couplers yet instid of on’y one an’ 
this thing. 

“Tried to make one o’ them flyin’ couplin’s not 
twenty minutes afterwards ; drawhead mashed into a 
rotten car, an’ I jumped back jest in time to keep 
from gittin’ squ’shed when they come together, but 
got my arm cut off. 

“ See this beauty mark on my mug like a single- 
track switchbeck up the side of a mountain ? Got 
throwed off o’ the top of a car in a head’n’head colli- 
sion, an’ ploughed down the side of a forty-foot rock 
fill on my nose. That’s railroadin’ ! 

“Ask Joe there why he don’t wear his other leg 
every day like most folks? Cos ole Bill Herndon 
that was killed in the big wreck at Jenkins’ Trestle 
four year ago flew a flat car over ’im one day an’ cut 
it off — that’s why.” 

“ I have always lived near the railroad,” said I, 
“and I never saw any brakeman who had been 
maimed like you two gentlemen. I think you must 
have had exceptionally bad luck.” 

“ ’Cepshunally bad luck ? ’cepshunally good luck, 
you mean. We hain’t neither of us killed yet, be 
we? Where do you s’pose the rest of the fellers 
is that went brakin’ when we did? Killed, every 
mother’s son of ’em, years an’ years ago. 

“We’re both on us nigher sixty ’n fifty. You 
don’t see but mighty few brakeys as old as we be, 
now I tell ye. 

“The reason you didn’t see no cripples on the 


LEARNING TO JUMP 


1 7 


trains is ’cos they don’t send ’em out on the 
road ; ’tain’t likely. What good ’d they be ? Them’s 
all fresh fish that you saw. Ain’t ben at the 
business long ; but they’ll git it, you’ll see. What ’re 
brakemen for, anyway ? Nothin’ but fodder for cars 
’n’ engines to eat up. Say, do you want to go 
brakin’ ? ” 

I was on my mettle, and determined not to let the 
old fellow think he had scared me by his tirade ; so 
I said yes I did. 

“Wal, I want another man, ’n’ you look to be a 
pretty lively young feller, but you’re so awful green. 
It’d cost me more to break ye in nor ye’d be worth 
for a month ter come,” and he looked at me with his 
eyes half shut, a cunning leer showing in spite of his 
bisected countenance. 

It flashed suddenly on my mind that perhaps if I 
should offer to pay him for his trouble it might sim- 
plify matters, so I said, “I know of course that I 
am green, but I wouldn’t mind paying a little to any 
one who would teach me the business.” 

“ Got any money ? ” 

“Yes, a little.” And I pulled out a handful of 
change and showed it to him. 

“Wal, I’ll tell ye what I’ll do: I won’t be hard on 
ye, ’cos it’ll be some time before ye git any pay. 
Gimme half a dollar, an’ I’ll give ye your first lesson 
right now.” 

“How about employment?” said I ; “will you hire 
me ? ” 

c 


1 8 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

“ I will, me boy ; you shall go out with me on my 
very next trip and continue yer education.” 

That seemed fair enough, so I handed him the 
half-dollar. 

“ Now then let’s see ye git up on that car an’ set 
a brake.” 

I ran lightly up the ladder on the head of the car, 
and being a vigorous young fellow, gave the brake- 
wheel what I thought was a good twist up, while 
he stood on the ground, and stared at me with his 
mouth open. 

I looked down at him to note his approval, but he 
merely said, “Set it.” 

“ I have,” said I. 

“Ye have wot ? ” 

“ Set the brake.” 

“ W’y, ye hain’t took up the slack o’ the chain yit. 
Set it ! ” 

He yelled out the words as if I had been half 
a mile from him instead of twenty feet or so. The 
sun was now shining down hotly on my back, and 
the big drops of perspiration ran down from under 
my straw hat and into my eyes, blinding me. 

I could feel my collar, that looked so nice an hour 
before when I left the hotel, sticking wet and soggy 
to my neck, as I strained at that old brake-wheel with 
all my might, blistering my hands with the unfamiliar 
toil, as I tried vainly, but oh ! so hard, to get another 
notch on it. 

With a cry of disgust and derision, the old fellow 


LEARNING TO JUMP 


19 


came up the ladder like a squirrel, and remarking, 
“ My, but the risin’ generation are weakly,” he 
hooked his patent safety coupler, as he called it, on 
to one of the spokes of the wheel, grasped the rim 
with his hand, and holding it at arm’s length gave 
his body a swing, when r-r-r-r-uck he spun it round 
nearly half a turn. 

“ There! ” said he; “ that’s the way it’s done, see ? 
Now kick off the dog an’ let ’er go.” 

I looked at him, and smiled at what I supposed 
was meant for a pleasantry, but again he roared out, 
— “ Kick off the dog, you d — d fool ! W’y don’t you 
kick off the dog ? ” 

I glanced over the car, but there was no dog up 
there, and I told him so, and furthermore, that I 
wouldn’t kick him off if there was. 

With that he grabbed the wheel again, gave it 
another jerk, and at the same time, with his toe he 
dexterously kicked the tail of the little ratchet that 
held it in place; then releasing the wheel, it flew 
back itself. 

“There,” said he, pointing with his toe, “that’s 
the dog ; now less see ye set it agin.” 

I had got on to the trick now. So doing as I had 
seen him, I set it a notch or two tighter than he had, 
although my hands, unused to the rough iron, were 
hot and sore. I also by his orders “ kicked off the 
dog an’ let ’er go.” 

“Now,” said he, “ye see that simple as it looks, 
an’ strong as ye be, ye couldn’t do it till ole Mike 


20 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


showed ye how. Let that teach ye that ye don’t 
know nothin’, if ye have been ter school all yer 
days. 

“ Now the next thing ye have ter learn is ter 
jump.” 

“Jump?” said I. 

“ Yes, jump. Ye have ter jump off and run inter 
the telegraph office an’ git an order, an’ git on agin 
without the train slowin’ up a mite ; ye have ter jump 
off an’ run back with a flag, or after the engine ’s cut 
loose an’ run ahead ; ye have ter jump off, an’ unlock 
an’ open a switch ter fly in a car that’s cornin’ too 
durn fast for comfort; an’ then agin ye have ter jump 
ter save yer own bacon, an’ that’s when ye can’t 
choose neither time nor place, but have got ter git 
off right where ye be, daylight or dark, on a bridge, 
on top of a big fill, in a narrow tunnel or deep cut, 
it don’t make no difference, an’ the train maybe goin’ 
forty mile an hour. Now I kin git off most any- 
where, an’ land right side up, so kin Joe there, or at 
least he could before he got a divorce from his other 
leg. All of us fellows kin, but I’ll bet you’re scairt 
to jump offer this car a stan’nin’ right still, down 
onto that nice smooth ground.” 

I looked down. It was certainly a high jump, and 
the ground was tramped down as hard as a barn 
floor; but I was bound that he shouldn’t dare me, and 
when he added, “ I’ll never hire a man that can’t 
make a little jump like that, offer a car stan’nin’ 
right still in the yard, for a starter,” I stooped for 



y y 




“ It was certainly a high jump 


P 


20 






























































LEARNING TO JUMP 


21 


the spring. A quiet voice from the other side of 
the car said just then, “What are you doing up 
there, Mike ? Are there any boxes to be packed 
on the roof of that car ? ” 

I turned and saw a young man of about twenty- 
five years of age, with a quiet but authoritative man- 
ner about him, looking up at us. Mike’s important 
manner dropped from him like a mask, as answering 
with the one word, “ Nothin’,” he commenced to 
descend sullenly to the ground, where the young 
man waited for him and told him to go on with his 
work, and quit his tomfoolery, as there was a train 
of forty cars to go out at four o’clock, or, as he 
expressed it, at four p.m., and he wanted them all 
packed before they left. 

Looking up at me, he said in the same quiet man- 
ner, “Come down here, you,” and down I came rather 
sheepishly, feeling that I had in some way been 
guilty of something or other, though for the life of 
me I couldn’t imagine what it could be. 

“ What were you doing up there on that car, de- 
taining this man from his work ? ” said he, when I 
arrived on the ground. “ Do you know that I could 
have you locked up for trespassing on the company’s 
property ? ” 

I became greatly alarmed at that, and hastened to 
assure him that I meant no harm, but that the gentle- 
man who was trimming the switch lamps had directed 
me to Mr. Mike, who he thought might hire me, as 
he needed another brakeman, and I was seeking 


22 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


a position of that kind, and that Mr. Mike had been 
teaching me how to set, and let off a brake, and was 
just going to teach me jumping when he came up. 

I noticed a scarcely perceptible twinkle in his eye 
as he turned to Mike, who was furiously jabbing dope 
into an axle-box, and said, — 

“ Mike, did you intend to hire this young man to 
brake for you?” 

Mike answered never a word; he simply picked up 
his traps and hurried off to the next car, and I no- 
ticed that the lamp-trimmer Joe was also conspicu- 
ous by his absence. 

“Come with me,” said the young man, and when 
we had gone a little way he asked me if I wished to 
go braking. I told him I did, and in answer to his 
further questioning, told him I had never railroaded 
in any capacity before. 

“Very well,” said he; “I am the yardmaster here; 
and as I am rather short of brakemen, and you ap- 
pear to be a likely young fellow, I will give you a job. 
But let me advise you to keep away from old Mike 
and Joe; they were only hoaxing you. Mike is a 
galvanizer, and has no power to hire anybody. They 
are two old-time brakemen, who were given those 
little jobs here in the yard because they were crip- 
pled in the company’s employ; but they are full of 
pranks, and delight in playing off their jokes on 
green hands, so don’t take any stock in anything 
they tell you, and above all, don’t take any advice 
from them, or from any one else, for that matter; 


LEARNING TO JUMP 


23 


but keep your eyes and ears open ; obey orders 
strictly, whether you can or not> and” — here he 
grabbed me by the arm and pulled me back just as 
I was about to step directly in front of a rapidly 
approaching car which an engine had kicked in on 
that track, and which would certainly have put an 
end to my railroading there and then. 

“ — Be careful, never, under any circumstances, no 
matter how big a hurry you are in, to step upon a rail- 
road track anywhere , without first looking both ways ; 
and if you see anything approaching near enough, 
so that there is any doubt about your being able to 
cross in perfect safety at an ordinary walk, don’t go ; 
always give everything on wheels the right of way.” 

I have remembered and followed that rule to this 
day, even in the city streets, and to it I attribute in 
a great measure the fact that I am alive yet. 

“ When will you be ready to go to work ? ” asked 
the yardmaster. I told him, “Right away.” “All 
right,” said he, and then looking at his watch, — 

“ Well, I don’t know but that you had better get 
your dinner first ; it’s now eleven thirty, and there’s 
no use of your getting killed on an empty stomach. 
Do you see that office over there by those green 
cars?” 

“Yes, sir.” 

“Well, go and get your dinner, and report to me 
there at 1 p.m. sharp.” 

“All right, sir,” said I, “and thank you very much 
for your kindness.” 


24 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


“Oh, that’s all right; go along now, and be sure 
and get back on time.” 

Away I went to my hotel for dinner, highly elated 
at my success. I was now indeed, I thought, a gen- 
uine railroad man. To be sure, I didn’t quite like 
all those allusions to killing and maiming, but I 
thought they had only been thrown out to try my 
nerve, and I congratulated myself that I had shown 
no sign of flinching. 

I was wrong in my conjecture, however; for like 
all railroad yards it was more or less of a slaughter- 
house, and one poor fellow’s life was crushed out of 
him that very afternoon, although I didn’t hear of 
it until the next day, and never saw him at all, which 
was just as well, I guess ; for if I had known of it at 
the time, I dare say I should have lost some of the 
nerve I felt so proud of. 

He was a car-repairer and was at work between two 
cars on the “dead-head.” The car-repairers’ signal 
was a piece of sheet iron, about a foot square, painted 
blue, and riveted to a four-foot iron rod, sharpened on 
the bottom so that it could be stuck in a tie vertically. 

There was a most rigid order that none but a car- 
repairer should handle that signal in any manner, 
and no one but the man that put it up must take it 
down. All cars needing repairs were run in on this 
track, and when the men were working on them, 
they stuck their signal in a tie ahead of the last car 
put in, and in plain sight of all the men working 
about the yard. 


LEARNING TO JUMP 


2 $ 

This was a notice to the train men not to touch 
any car on that track, or to put any more in there, 
until the repair gang were notified, so that they 
might look out for themselves, take down their sig- 
nal, and put it up again outside the outer car, as 
before. 

In this instance, the signal, carelessly put up, had 
fallen down, and a conductor having a crippled car 
to go in there, glanced down the track, saw no signal 
up, opened the switch, pulled the coupling pin on 
the crippled car, and gave his engineer a signal to 
kick it in, which of course he did. 

As the unfortunate man was stooping over the 
drawhead of a car further back, when the kicked car 
fetched up, the drawhead, link and all, were driven 
clear through his body. 

They said he let one agonizing scream out of him 
and died. Of course, as soon as they heard him yell, 
they ran from all directions, but we being in a dis- 
tant part of the yard knew nothing of it. A switch- 
rope was hooked on to the car on whose drawhead 
he was impaled, and the same engine that did the 
deed pulled it back. 

He was a poor man, with the usual poor man’s 
blessing, a large family, so we made up a purse to 
bury him, and the company gave his wife and two 
oldest children employment in the car-cleaning gang, 
and one more was added to the countless thousands 
of human lives fed into the insatiate maw of the 
railway. 


CHAPTER III. 


HE REPORTS FOR DUTY — A RAILROAD MAN AT LAST 

BREAKING IN DIRTY BILL THE ENGINEER A 

WALTON PUNKIN HUSKER THOROUGHLY DISGUSTED 

RECEPTION AT THE HOTEL — CONGENIAL COM- 
PANY AT LAST — THE FIRST SQUEEZE 

I reported to the yardmaster ten minutes ahead 
of time. Sticking his head out of the door, he called 
out, — 

“ Hey, Simmons ! ” 

A fine, large, sunburned, black-bearded man ap- 
peared in answer to the summons. 

“ Here’s a green man I want you to break in,” 
said the yardmaster; “put him on top and let him 
pass the signal for a day or two until he can handle 
himself.” 

“ All right,” said Simmons, who I soon found was 
the conductor of a “ drill,” a switch engine crew. He 
took me out to the engine, and said to the engineer, 
a grimy, greasy individual, — 

“ Bill, here’s a fresh fish Dawson wants to break 
in. I’ll put him on the head car and let him pass 
the signal.” 

“All right,” said Bill, sourly. 

26 


BREAKING IN 


27 


I was then told to mount the car next the engine, 
and repeat the signals of the man in the middle of 
the train to the engineer. 

That seemed simple enough, but I hadn’t been 
doing it more than ten minutes, when the engine 
stopped, and Bill called out, — 

“ Hey ! Hey ! you there, dominie, parson ! ” 

Seeing that he was addressing his remarks to me, 
and not liking the impertinence of such a disrepu- 
table-looking individual, I said, — 

“ Well ! what is it ? Are you talking to me?” 

“Yes, I’m talkin’ to you, an’ ye better keep a civil 
tongue in yer head, I tell ye. What kind of a signal 
is that ye’re givin’ me ? Wha’ d’ye want me ter do, 
anyway ? ” 

“I don’t want you to do anything, and I don’t 
care what you do. I’m giving you the signal just as 
I get it.” 

“ No, ye hain’t nuther, an’ don’t ye give me no 
back talk. Say, where do you come from ? ” 

“ I am from Walton,” said I. 

“Sho! I thought so — another Walton punkin 
husker. Say, Simmons, take this d — d ornament o’ 
yours down off o’ here, an’ give me a man that 
knows one signal from another, or I’ll smash all the 
cars in the yard before night.” 

Then he gave the engine a jerk back that nearly 
threw me off the car. 

“ Oh, he’s all right,” said Simmons. “ He’s a little 
green, but he’ll get over that ; ” then to me, “ Be care- 


2 8 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


ful how you pass the signals, bub, or the engineer 
can’t tell what he’s doing.” 

I told him I was giving them just exactly as the 
other man did. 

“ Well, that’s all right ; Bill is kinder cranky, but 
you mustn’t mind that.” 

We hadn’t worked ten minutes more, and my arms 
were beginning to ache from the continuous motion, 
when Bill roared out, — 

“Say! you infernal counter-jumper, will you git out 
o’ the way, so I can see that man’s signals ? Set down, 
fall down, git ter h — down off o’ there! You’ll 
scare the engine off the track, the way you’re flap- 
ping your wings.” Then, having occasion to go to 
the other end of the yard, he pulled her wide open, 
drenching me with soot and water from the stack, 
until I was a sight for gods and men. I had my 
best clothes on, and they were ruined. 

When we were relieved at six o’clock, I was tired, 
dirty, and thoroughly disgusted with railroading, and 
started for my hotel firmly determined to quit at 
once. 

Arriving at the door, I found it occupied by the 
landlord’s burly figure, to the exclusion of any one 
who might wish to pass either in or out. I bid him 
good evening as cordially as I could, — which wasn’t 
very cordially, — and waited for him to step aside so 
that I could go in ; but without moving, he merely 
looked down at me, and said in a most insulting 
tone, — 


BREAKING IN 


29 


“Well, what do you want ? ” 

I said I wished to go in and get my supper. 

“ Supper, hey ? You’ll get no supper here. I don’t 
keep tramps. Come now, get a move on, before I set 
the dog on you.” 

“Why, I board here; I arrived last night on the 
eleven o’clock train from Walton,” said I. 

“ Oh, came in on a brake beam, did you ? I 
thought p’raps you came in your private carriage, — 
now then, git ! ” 

Seizing me by the shoulders, he whirled me quickly 
round, and with a vigorous kick, landed me sprawl- 
ing in a mud puddle in front of the door. 

It was my first experience of a kick, and while it 
was exceedingly painful to my physical person, the 
insult, which was emphasized by the uproarious 
laughter of the bystanders, as I rose dripping from 
the mud, filled me with murderous rage. Rushing 
upon the piazza, I seized a heavy chair, and raising 
it over my head went for him ; but before I got within 
range, the dog seized me, — fortunately by the heel 
of my shoe, — and at the same instant Simmons, who 
had just arrived, took the chair from me, and driving 
off the dog, asked what the matter was. 

I was now on the point of blubbering outright, but 
avoided it by an effort of will, while the landlord 
was bursting with offended dignity, and ordered his 
clerk to find an officer at once, and have the tramp 
locked up. 

Fortunately for me, however, the clerk recognized 


30 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


me in spite of my disreputable appearance, and as 
Simmons explained how I came to be so dishevelled, 
they managed to pacify the enraged landlord suffi- 
ciently to save me from arrest. He notified me, 
however, that he drew the line at firemen and brake- 
men ; engineers and conductors he would entertain, 
but no railroaders of lower degree. Thus I took my 
first lesson in railroad caste, and it was thoroughly 
impressed on both my mental and physical person. 

I swore to sue him for assault and battery ; but 
Simmons dissuaded me, saying he was too big a man 
for me to successfully prosecute, so I pocketed my 
injured pride, as I have often had to do since. 

My valise was passed out to me, the landlord very 
graciously declining to charge anything for my pre- 
vious entertainment, and by Simmons’ advice I went 
to a regular railroad boarding-house, where I soon 
found the surroundings more congenial, and learned 
many wise railroad axioms. 

During the evening I scraped acquaintance with 
a young fellow about my own age. I was attracted 
by his appearance, he seeming to be, like myself, 
“ a boy from home,” although not as green as I was. 
He was a nice, quiet, decent-appearing young fellow 
who was conspicuous — to me at least — by his non- 
indulgence in tobacco and profanity. 

After supper we adjourned with our chairs to the 
shade of a big tree in front of the house, and I con- 
fided to him my day’s woes. He laughed at first; but 
seeing I regarded my adventures as anything but 


BREAKING IN 


31 


funny, checked himself, and told me not to mind it ; 
that all green hands were subjected to similar and 
frequently much worse initiations, and when I told 
him I would railroad no more, he said I was foolish, 
he had been at it a year and liked it, and he predicted 
that inside of thirty days I would too. He said he 
wouldn’t go back to the farm for anything. He sent 
most of his money home, thereby helping his poor 
old parents more than he could in any other way. 

He admitted that the talk I had heard so much of, 
in regard to killing and maiming, was by no means 
exaggerated, but believed that it was largely due to 
the recklessness of the men themselves, and he 
hoped to escape the almost universal fate by being 
careful. Poor fellow ! he was blown from the top 
of his train a few months afterwards, and found by 
the section gang, frozen stiff. 

Being considerably cheered by my new friend’s 
advice, and the good-natured, jolly appearance of 
other boarders, who seemed pleased to make a new 
acquaintance, and were quite free with advice and 
criticisms of everybody above them, from the yard- 
master to the president of the road, I reconsidered 
my decision, and reported for duty at six o’clock the 
next morning, and worked all day with no more 
thrilling adventure than an occasional cursing from 
sooty Bill, which, however, I soon learned to disre- 
gard entirely. 

Before I had been a week in the yard, I was well 
broken in, and had acquired the reckless air which 


32 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


is the second stage in the greenhorn’s experience, 
and is characteristic of the period before he gets 
hurt. 

I delighted in catching and riding on the most 
swiftly flying cars, and became an expert at making 
h — fired couplings and flying switches. Occasion- 
ally an old hand would say, with a wise shake of the 
head, “You’ll git it bimeby,” but I only laughed. 

It was four or five months before I “got it.” I 
was making a coupling one afternoon, had balanced 
the pin in the drawhead of the stationary car, and 
was running along ahead of the other, holding up 
the link, when just before coming together she left 
the track, having jumped a frog. Hearing the 
racket behind me, I sprang to one side ; but my toe 
touching the top of the rail prevented me from get- 
ting quite clear. I was caught between the corners 
of the cars as they came together and heard my ribs 
cave in, like smashing an old box with an axe. 

The car stopped just right to hold me as in a vice. 
I nearly fainted with pain, and from inability to 
breathe. Fortunately Mr. Simmons was watching me, 
and with the rare presence of mind due to long 
service he called at once for the switch-rope. He 
wouldn’t allow the engine to come back and couple 
to the car again, as it would be almost sure to crush 
out my little remaining life. It seemed to me that I 
should surely suffocate before they got that switch- 
rope hooked on to the side of the car, though I knew 
the boys were hustling for dear life ; but I tell you 



I delighted in catching and riding on the most swiftly 
flying cars.” — p. 32. 




BREAKING IN 


33 


when your breath is shut off, seconds are hours. 
My head was bursting, and I became blind; there 
was a terrible roaring in my ears, and then as the 
engine settled back on the switch-rope, I felt a life- 
giving relief as I fell fainting but thankful into the 
arms of the boys. 

I was carried to the yardmaster’s office, every step 
of the way the jagged ends of my broken ribs prick- 
ing and grating as though they would punch holes 
in me, and my breath coming in short suffocating 
gasps. The company’s doctor was summoned, a 
young fellow fresh from college, whose necessities 
compelled him to accept the twenty-five dollars a 
month which they paid for medical attendance for 
damaged employees. He cut my clothes off, and 
after half murdering me by punching and squeezing, 
asking all the time what I was hollering about, 
finally remarked, — 

“ There’s nothing much the matter with him ; few 
of his slats stove in, that’s all.” He then bandaged 
me, and a couple of the boys half carried and hall 
led me to the boarding-house, where I was mighty 
glad to be, for I was pretty well exhausted. 

There I lay unable to move, without help, for six 
weeks, visited by the doctor daily for a while, and 
then at less frequent intervals ; but some of the boys 
were with me nearly all the time. They kept me 
posted as to what was going on in the yard, and 
cheered me up greatly by telling of their own various 
mishaps in the past. I found to my surprise that 


34 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


few of them had escaped broken bones and smashed 
fingers, and I was assured that broken ribs were 
nothing, absolutely nothing; I ought to have a 
broken leg or dislocated shoulder pulled into place ; 
then I would know something about it. 

Their talk restored my spirits wonderfully; for 
whereas I had been disconsolate at the thought that 
I was now a physical wreck, fit only for a job of flag- 
ging on some road-crossing at twenty dollars a 
month, I now found that the boys whom I had seen 
racing about the yard all day, shouting, giving sig- 
nals, and climbing on and off cars, had nearly all of 
them been much worse broken up than I was, and 
some of them several times, yet they were apparently 
as sound as ever. Even Simmons, who appeared to 
be a particularly fine specimen of physical manhood, 
told me that he once fell while running ahead of a 
car, just as I had been doing, and twelve cars and 
the engine passed over him, rolling him over and 
over, breaking both his legs, and, as he said, mixing 
up his insides in such a way that his victuals didn’t 
do him much good for a year after. 

I was laid up two months, and the very first day I 
returned to work, I saw a sight that nearly discour- 
aged me altogether. There were two brothers in 
one of the drill crews: one was conductor, and the 
other brakeman. As frequently happens, Pete, the 
conductor, considered his brother Jim the poorest 
man in the crew, and of course himself the best, so he 
was always shouting and yelling at him. 


BREAKING IN 


35 


On this occasion I was on the ground, giving the 
signal to Simmons, who passed it on to the engineer, 
when I heard Pete hollering as usual at Jim, telling 
him to either pull the pin, or get to h — out o’ there 
and let a man do it. There was nothing unusual 
about that, but I glanced in their direction just in 
time to see Pete rush at Jim in a rage, yank him out 
from between the cars, and step in himself. 

They were coming back pretty lively, and he 
wanted to kick the last car in on a spur, and proceed 
back with the rest of his train without stopping. It 
had to be done just right, and mighty quick, in order 
to be a success ; that was why he was so aggravated 
at Jim for not getting the pin out fast enough. 

Before he could get the pin out himself, his foot 
caught in the guard rail, opposite the frog. He 
grabbed the step of the car, and hung with a death 
grip for an instant ; but it was no use, his foot was 
tightly wedged. I distinctly saw his face as the 
step was torn from his grasp, and it haunted me long 
afterward. A dozen cars went over him before the 
engine stopped, and his remains were scattered along 
the track, and ground into small fragments. 

I turned sick and faint, and for the rest of that 
day, every time I thought of his white, agonized face, 
I was nearly overcome. 


CHAPTER IV 


RAILROAD MEN’S THEORIES IN REGARD TO MAIMING 

AND KILLING — A CASE IN POINT — ANOTHER 

ON THE ROAD THE CABOOSE ON THE ENGINE 

TOM RILEY — A CLEVER TRICK 

In the boarding-house that evening I expressed 
my horror at the fate that had befallen poor Pete, 
and was surprised to find that among the men his 
was not considered by any means a deplorable case, 
but if anything rather fortunate ; for they argued 
that he had no time to suffer, and that he was 
much better off dead than he would have been if 
crippled for life. 

While this argument may seem rather heartless, I 
must confess that years of experience have since 
taught me its truth. I have seen and conversed 
with many men who have survived terrible accidents, 
and their universal testimony has been that they 
experienced no suffering at the time, but had simply 
lapsed into unconsciousness, so that now when I read 
in the papers the heart-rending details of the hor- 
rible deaths by railroad wreck, of those who were 
killed , they fail to move me, for I know that theirs 
was an enviably easy exit. 

I knew a fireman who worked two or three hours 
36 


A CLEVER TRICK 


3 7 


getting his engine ready, backed on to the train, and 
fired for twenty miles on the road, when, on round- 
ing a curve, the engineer, seeing a locomotive head- 
light in front of him, shouted to the fireman to jump. 
Instinctively he pulled the firebox door open, and 
blinded by the glare of the fire, jumped square out 
into the darkness. 

He was rolled over, and over, and very badly hurt; 
his face was fearfully cut and lacerated, and several 
bones were broken. 

Both men had seen the headlight through the 
trees before rounding the curve, but as they got no 
flag, supposed, of course, that she was on her own 
track. 

It was the way freight that had crossed over to 
load some freight that had been left on the station 
platform on that side. The conductor had sent his 
flag ahead, to hold TJ^osing trains, but the flagman, 
instead of attending to business, set his red lamp on 
a tie, and taking the white one, went looking for 
chestnuts in the woods. Tke red lamp, left to Itself, | 
went out, and hence the collision. 

When the engineer saw tl®^it was inevitable, he 
shut off, reversed, and blew brakes. She J&s one 
of those old-fashioned engines, with the throttle stem 
through the boiler head; so that whena® had done 
all in his power to stop, and it waV^bq late to jump, 
the tender at the moment of collisicraPleaped up and 
pinned the unfortunate man fast to the hot boiler 
head. The coal shooting forwarcLTrom the sudden 


38 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


\ 


stoppage, filled the cab, and buried him completely 
from sight. 

When the train men came to look for the engine 
crew, they were nowhere to be found, but soon the 
odor of roasting human flesh gave them the clew, 
and procuring shovels they frantically threw out the 
coal, only to find the dead engineer sole occupant of 
the wreck. Knowing that the fireman had either 
jumped or been thrown off, one party searched the 
track with lanterns, and soon found him in the ditch 
covered with blood and dirt, his clothes nearly all 
torn off, and apparently dead. 

He revived, however, after being carried into the 
station, and the application of such simple but effec- 
tive^ remedies as railroa-d men know of. He ap- 
peared to have entirely recovered his senses, told 
what he knew of the wreck, Jflk expressed genuine 
sorrow for the • fate of his e^^ieer. A passenger 
train, was flagged, and he was sent into the hospital ; 
hdBfciversed as well \as he could with the train 
^crl^telling them all that had happened, not only 
•what he knew himself, also what the others had 
told him. After his ^fcunds were dressed in the hos- 
pital, jj^was taken with a fever, and for several days 
recn>< 


hov 

/single cSrcum 
ner at home o 
I knew an e 
and not liking 


ettyeen life and death 



J 

naole 


&as unable to remember a 
• lat£r \ han the eating of his din- 
Ll ay of the Wreck, 
er who had occasion to jump, 
oks of the big rock fill on his 


A CLEVER TRICK 


39 


side, he jumped down in the tender where the fire- 
man was watching for a good chance on his own 
side. They were both picked up for dead, but 
whether they jumped or were thrown off neither 
could ever tell: the last thing the engineer remem- 
bered was telling the fireman to hurry up, so that he 
could get off too. 

Shortly after my return to work Simmons got one 
side of a new freight train, and to my great delight 
took me with him on the road. I was not only glad 
to get out of the slaughter-house, with my full com- 
plement of limbs, but I was also pleased at the pros- 
pect of at last learning practical railroading, of which 
I had heard so much. 

We had a fine big eight-wheel caboose, right out 
of the paint shop, red outside, and green inside. 
There were six bunks in her, a row of lockers on 
each side, to sit on and keep supplies in, a stove 
and table, and a desk for the conductor. We fur- 
nished our own bedding and cooking-utensils, and as 
Simmons wouldn’t have any but nice fellows around 
him, we had a pleasant and comfortable home on 
wheels. We each contributed to the mess, except 
the flagman, and as he did the cooking, he messed 
free. We took turns cleaning up, and as the boys 
had good taste, we soon had the car looking like a 
young lady’s boudoir. We had lace curtains in front 
of the bunks, a strip of oil cloth on the floor, a mat 
that the flagman had “ swiped ” from a sleeper, a ca- 
nary in a cage, and a dog. 


40 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


As a younger man than I had been assigned to us, 
I was second man, which gave me the head of the 
train ; so I rode on the engine, and was the engineer’s 
flag. 

I ran ahead when necessary to protect our end, 
opened and closed switches, cut off and coupled on 
the engine, held the train on down grades, watched 
out for the caboose on curves, took water, shovelled 
down coal to the fireman, rang the bell at crossings, 
put on the blower, oiled the valves, and handed the 
engineer oil-cans, wrenches, and lights for his pipe. 

I now scraped acquaintance with that formidable 
document, the time table, and heard train orders, 
and the officers who issued them, discussed by such 
high authorities as conductors and engineers, and I 
listened in rapt astonishment at the deep erudition 
which they displayed in handling these subjects. I 
soon learned that the officers on our road “ didn’t 
know nothing,” and that “where / come from” they 
would not have been allowed to “sit on the fence 
and watch the trains go by,” whereupon I conceived 
a great wonder as to how the road survived under 
such densely incompetent management. 

I enjoyed riding on the engines, as the engineers 
and firemen were fine, sociable fellows, and when we 
were a little late, and had a passing point to make, 
the engineer would sometimes say, “ Don’t you set 
no brakes goin’ down here; I got to git a gait on 
’em.” Then when the train pitched over the top of 
the hill, he would cut her back a notch at a time, till 






44 I watch that grimy left hand on the throttle.” — 


p. 41. 






A CLEVER TRICK 


41 


he got her near the centre, and gradually work his 
throttle out wide open. How she would fly down 
hill, the exhaust a steady roar out of the stack, the 
connecting-rods an undistinguishable blur, the old 
girl herself rolling and jumping as if at every revolu- 
tion she must leave the track, the train behind hall 
hid in a cloud of dust, and I hanging on to the side 
of the cab for dear life, watching out ahead where I 
know there is a sharp reverse curve, and hoping, oh, 
so much, that he’ll shut her off before we get there. 

I watch that grimy left hand on the throttle for 
the preliminary swelling of the muscles, that will 
show me he is taking a grip on it to shove it in. 
Not a sign ; his head and half his body are out the 
window,; and now we are upon it. I give one fright- 
ened glance at the too convenient ditch, where I 
surely expect to land, and take a death grip of the 
side of the cab. Whang ! She hits the curve, seems 
to upset ; I am nearly flung out the window in spite 
of my good grip. Before she has half done rolling 
(how do the springs ever stand it ?) she hits the 
reverse, and I am torn from my hold on the window 
and slammed over against the boiler, and having 
passed this most uncomfortable place, she flies on, 
rolling and roaring down the mountain. All this 
time the engineer hasn’t moved an eyelid, nor the 
firemen interrupted for an instant the steady pen- 
dulum-like swing of the fire-door and the scoop- 
shovel. How do they do it ? Oh, it’s easy after you 
get used to it. 


42 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


Fifteen minutes afterward, in the siding, with 
switches locked waiting for the flyer, nobody seems 
to remember that we have done anything in par- 
ticular. 

At first I had considered the locomotive as far too 
complicated a machine for me ever to understand, but 
gradually I learned its various parts ; and when I 
found that nearly all the engineers and firemen had 
risen from brakemen like myself, I took heart, and 
hoped that some day I might sit on the right side, to 
be spoken to with some slight deference by the 
officials, and stared at in open-mouthed admiration 
by the small boys at the country stations. 

Old Tom Riley was a man to whom I looked up 
as the epitome of railroad knowledge. He frequently 
hauled our train ; he was so old that the top of his 
head was perfectly bald, but he had a great mop of 
gray beard, with a yellowish streak from the chin 
down, an evidence of many years of tobacco-chewing, 
and unsuccessful efforts to spit to windward. 

He was supposed to be the oldest engineer any- 
where about, and said himself, that his “first job 
railroadin’ wos wipin’ the donkey engine in Noah’s 
ark.” He was a good-natured, jolly old fellow, a 
great practical joker, strong, and rough as a bear, 
but as well pleased apparently when the joke was on 
himself, as any other way. He had been so long at 
the business that he knew all sorts of tricks by which 
to get himself out of tight places, so that it was 
seldom indeed that the “ super ” had the pleasure of 


A CLEVER TRICK 43 

hauling Tom on the carpet for a violation of the 
rules. 

One night we were a little late, so that we barely 
had time to make the siding for a following passen- 
ger train, and to make matters worse, when we were 
about halfway there, Tom said he smelt something 
hot, so he stopped, and found his main crank-pin 
about ready to blaze up. The oil-cup had stopped 
feeding ; so he deliberately took it out, filled the hole 
with tallow, screwed in the cup, called his flag, and 
started again, very late. 

Simmons came up over the train and said he 
guessed he’d leave a flag at the bottom of the hill to 
hold No. 6 till we got in. 

“ No, no,” says old Tom; “don’t ye never drop off 
no flag to give yourself away, git called ter the 
office, an’ all hands git ten days.” 

“You can’t get to the switch on time,” said 
Simmons. 

“ Course not. I ought ter be there in twenty min- 
utes, an’ I’ll be lucky if I git there in twenty-five.” 

“Well, then, I’ll have to drop off a flag, or they’ll 
git our ‘ doghouse.’ ” 

“ Now here, Simmons, I’ll tell ye what you do : 
you go back in the doghouse, an’ don’t you see 
nothin’ that’s goin’ on ; only git up in the cupalo an’ 
watch out good an’ sharp that yer train don’t break 
in two. I’ll git ye inter the switch time enough, so 
six ’ll never see yer tail lights.” 

Simmons, knowing his man, at last agreed, and 


44 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


after he had got safely housed, Tom handed me his 
long oil-can, and told me to go back on the step of 
the caboose, and oil first one rail, and then the other. 

“ Let the oil run about a car length on one rail, 
an’ then do the same the other side; repeat the dose 
once, an’ come ahead agin,” said Tom. 

I did so, and just as we were pulling in to the side 
track, we heard the exhaust of the passenger engine, 
as she came clipping along for the hill; presently 
we could tell by the sound that she had struck the 
grade, then — cha-cha-ch-r-r-r cha-ch-r-r-r. 

“Oho!” says Tom, “are ye there? Grind away, 
my boy. I guess old Tom ’ll git in an’ git the switch 
locked before you git up here, all right.” 

He did, too. Long before the passenger engine 
got by the oil, we were comfortably smoking our 
pipes in the switch, and when she went sailing by, 
her engineer shouted something that we couldn’t 
catch, but to which Tom replied, — 

“Go ahead, sonny; you’re all right.” 

Next day, as Tom was doing a little packing in 
the roundhouse, the engineer of “six” came up to 
him and said, — 

“ Riley, was that you in Snyders’ when I went by 
last night ? ” 

“ Yes,” says Tom. “ A little late, wa’n’t ye ? ” 

“ Late ? I sh’d say so. I never saw Snyders’ so 
slippery as ’twas last night. I used half a box of sand. 
How’d you git there ? ” 

“Oh, I didn’t have no trouble,” says Tom, 



** Her engineer shouted something that we couldn’t 

catch.” — p. 44. 











































































A CLEVER TRICK 


45 


didn’t notice that ’twas any slipperyer ’n usual ; guess 
maybe the pet cock on yer pump might ’a’ been 
leakin’ a little or suthin, an’ wet the rail fer ye.” 

“ Mebbe so,” says the other fellow ; and away he 
went to look his engine over, and see if such was the 
case. 


CHAPTER V 


APPLIES FOR A FIREMAN’S POSITION KEEPING HER 

TAIL UP A MISTAKE IN ORDER A BAD WRECK 

A HAIR-BREADTH ESCAPE 

I “ broke” a year, and by that time was of some 
use. I could read the time table, discuss train orders, 
and knew the trains by heart. I had written to my 
mother, telling her that I was employed on the rail- 
road, but not in what capacity. I heard in reply that 
my father was far from well, and while the news 
damped my spirits momentarily, I soon forgot it, in 
the excitement of things of more immediate interest 
to myself. 

I came to the conclusion that the engine offered 
more opportunities of advancement than the caboose, 
so by Tom Riley’s advice I filed an application with 
the master mechanic, asking for a position as fireman ; 
and though I must admit that he didn’t give me the 
slightest encouragement, yet the fact that I had my 
application on file made me feel that I was sure of 
a job, and that, too, at no very distant day, so I 
began to take a greater interest than ever in the 
engines, and I presume I made a nuisance of myself 
by asking innumerable questions of the engineers 
and firemen, so anxious was I to learn all I could in 
46 


A MISTAKE IN ORDER 


47 


regard to the machine, for which, even to this day, 
I have an abiding love and respect. The amount of 
misinformation that I acquired was sufficient to have 
wrecked any road in the country, if I had been in 
a position to put it into effect. Some, no doubt, was 
given me unconsciously, or rather mischievously, 
that I might make a show of myself in the argu- 
ments in which I was so fond of indulging with the 
firemen ; but by far the larger part due to the igno- 
rance of those on whom I relied for information, for 
at this period I was unable to distinguish between 
those who were and those who were not competent 
to furnish what I was so desirous of obtaining. To 
me it seemed that all alike, engineers and firemen, 
were good authorities on the subject, though before 
I got through with them I was pretty well able to 
sift the wheat from the chaff. 

Sometimes when the train was not too heavy, and 
the grade was favorable, one or other of the firemen 
would let me “ take her ” for a bit; and then if I was 
able to ‘‘keep her tail up,” I felt myself indeed a 
man, and never failed to let it be known in the 
caboose that I had fired on a certain stretch of the 
road. But if while I was at the shovel she dropped 
her tail, and the fireman had to take her from me, 
I would not allude to that episode, when bragging of 
my abilities; but the men were sure to hear of it, 
and the guying I got fully offset my petty triumphs. 

About six months after I filed my application, 
there was a mistake made in orders, that came very 


48 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


near winding up my railroad career for good. I did 
not know at the time exactly what the trouble was, 
nor can I say now positively. Simmons and the 
engineer, who were both discharged, asserted that 
they were sacrificed to save the despatcher, who was 
a son-in-law of the president of the road. 

Whoever was to blame, the result was disastrous ; 
for we met the train which we expected to pass at 
the next siding, in a deep cut under a railroad bridge. 
Both trains were wheeling down under the bridge at 
a forty-mile gait, so as to have a good headway on, to 
take them out the other side. As the view of both 
engineers was obstructed by the stone abutments of 
the bridge, neither doubted for a moment that he 
had a clear track. 

They met exactly under the bridge with a shock 
and roar that seemed to shake the solid earth ; the 
locomotives reared up like horses, the cars shoved 
their tenders under them in such a way as to jack 
them up and raise the bridge off its abutments ; and 
then as the cars climbed on top of each other, they 
battered it from its position until it lay nearly at 
right angles to its own road like an open draw, rest- 
ing on top of the wreck. 

Our conductors sent flags back both ways to hold 
all trains ; but before the men could get up the bank 
to flag on the cross-country road, a belated gravel 
train came hurrying along, and plumped in on top of 
us, helping to fill up the cut still more. Their engine 
set fire to the wreck, and as we were some distance 



“They met exactly under the bridge.” — p. 48 





A MISTAKE IN ORDER 


49 


from a telegraph office, all three trains and engines 
were entirely consumed before help reached us, 
nothing remaining but a tangled and twisted mass 
of boilers, wheels, rods, and pipes, partly covered by 
the gravel train’s load of sand. 

I was on the engine, sitting on the fireman’s seat, 
looking out ahead. As it was daylight, there was 
not even the glare of a head-lamp to give us the 
fraction of a second’s warning, and our own engine 
made such a roaring in the narrow cut that we could 
hear nothing else. The first intimation we had of 
approaching danger was when we saw the front end 
of the other locomotive not forty feet from us. 
Neither of the engineers had time to close their 
throttles — an act that is done instinctively on the first 
appearance of danger. 

I cannot say that I was frightened. Even the 
familiar “ jumping of the heart into the throat,” 
which so well describes the sensation usually experi- 
enced on the sudden discovery of deadly peril, was 
absent ; for though I certainly saw the front end of 
that engine as plainly as I ever saw anything in my 
life, I had no time to realize what it meant. I made 
no move or effort of any kind, and it seemed that at 
the same instant that she burst upon my view, day- 
light was shut out and I was drenched with cold 
water ; yet before that happened, they had come 
together, reared up as I have said, and I had been 
thrown to the front of the cab, the tender had come 
ahead, staving the cab to pieces, thereby dropping 


50 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


me out on the ground, and by knocking a hole in 
itself against the back driving-wheel, had deluged 
me with its contents. 

The flood of cold water caused me, bewildered as I 
was, to try and get away from it. I knew I was 
under the wreck, and for a few minutes I could hear 
the cars piling up, and grinding overhead. 

I knew what that was too, and feared they would 
smash the wreck down on top of me, and so squeeze 
my life out. But the engine acted as a fender ; for 
being jammed among the wreckage, she could not be 
pushed over, and as she stood on her rear wheels she 
could not be mashed down. 

The noise soon ceased, and then except for the 
sound of steam escaping from the boilers, I could 
hear nothing; then I remembered that the boilers 
themselves were a fruitful source of danger to me, as 
there might be a hole knocked in the water-space 
that would pour out a scalding flood and boil me 
alive. I had heard, too, of boilers in inaccessible 
localities losing the water from about the furnaces, 
and getting the iron so hot and soft, that it would 
give out like wet paper, blowing up and scalding 
any unfortunate who might be imprisoned near it. 
I knew, too, that wrecks had a way of taking fire 
from the locomotive. These thoughts occurred to 
me much more rapidly than I could tell them, and 
spurred me on to do my utmost to get out of there. 

It was perfectly dark where I was ; and, as I knew, 
it was still daylight outside. This proved to me how 


A MISTAKE IN ORDER 


51 


completely I was buried under the wreck, and was 
far from reassuring. How could I ever hope to 
make my way from under those tons of cars and 
engines ? The only wonder was that I had escaped 
being killed instantly, and for a few minutes I felt 
but little gratitude at having been spared, only to be 
slowly tortured to death. 

When I attempted to move, I found that as far as 
sensation was concerned, my right leg ended at the 
knee, so I felt down to see if it was cut off, as I 
knew it would be necessary to stanch the flow of 
blood in that case, or I would soon die from that 
cause alone. To my great joy, I found that my leg 
and foot were still with me, though how badly hurt 
I was unable to tell, for being drenched with water, 
the blood might, for all I knew, be flowing from 
many severe wounds. 

At this moment there was another crash, and 
grinding and splintering overhead, caused by the 
wrecking of the gravel train, but which I attributed 
to the explosion of one of the boilers. In this second 
wreck, two men were killed outright, and the engineer 
died of his injuries the next day; yet to it, I have no 
doubt, I owe my escape, for it disturbed the position 
of the cars, so that I perceived a ray of daylight, 
away, as it seemed, half a mile ahead of me. I 
exerted myself to the utmost to reach it, and how 
far off it was ! I had to work my way back under 
the wrecked tender and several cars. I found the 
space under the tender piled so full of coal that it 


52 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

was impossible to pass, yet that was my only way 
out ; so I began digging with my hands, feverishly, 
madly, in the desire to get away while I still had my 
senses and strength, and oh how I wished then I had 
never gone railroading ! What was there in it ? A 
miserable living gained by the hardest kind of work, 
with almost a certainty of being crippled, or meeting 
death by some horrible means. 

After digging as it seemed for hours, until my 
hands were raw and bleeding, and I had blocked my 
retreat by the coal I had thrown behind me, I found 
myself confronted by the axle of the rear truck, 
which stood at such an angle as to positively forbid 
all hope of my ever getting out that way. 

I sank down in despair, realizing that like thou- 
sands of poor railroaders who had gone before, my 
time had now come, and here in this dark close hole 
was to be the end of me. I tried to fix my mind on 
such thoughts as I knew were appropriate to the occa- 
sion, but my leg was so painful that I could think of 
nothing else. It seemed to have swollen to twice its 
size, and I remember thinking as I lay there in what I 
believed to be my living grave, that I might at least 
have been spared that extra torment. 

A numbness came over me, and I seemed to be 
falling into a kind of stupor, broken frequently by 
the twinges of pain from my leg, when my nostrils 
were greeted by a faint odor of wood smoke, and my 
heart was thrilled with a new terror that urged 
me to make one more desperate effort to escape. 
















































































, 
































y y 


“ It wasn’t long before I crawled under the truck. 


p. 53. 




A MISTAKE IN ORDER 


53 


The wreck was on fire, and though I might have 
resigned myself to lie still and die, I could not endure 
the thought of being roasted alive; so again made 
desperate by great fear, I dug my bleeding hands into 
the coal, and commenced to burrow like a woodchuck 
in the direction where I could see that the truck was 
elevated highest above the rail, and to my great joy 
I soon found that the coal pile extended but a short 
distance in that direction. 

It wasn’t long before I had crawled under the 
truck, which had been raised from the ground by 
the corner of a car, and was making fairly good 
progress among the tangle of wheels, axles, and 
brake-gear, in the direction of the ray of light which 
had first attracted my attention. I found it came 
down by a very small, crooked, and much-obstructed 
passage through the debris of broken cars above my 
head — a passage entirely too small for me to get 
through, and which I could never hope to enlarge 
myself. The smoke was now suffocating, and it was 
only at longer and longer intervals that I could 
catch my breath. I had not as yet felt the heat of 
the fire, but when I looked up through the narrow 
opening above me, I could see in the flying clouds of 
smoke sparks and small firebrands, which told me 
that the fire must be raging fiercely, and also that 
the wind was blowing it in my direction, which in- 
duced me to make the most frantic efforts to escape. 
I might as well have tried to lift the ponderous 
locomotive, as to move the tightly wedged wreckage 


54 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


that imprisoned me; and as I glanced at the little 
patch of blue sky, now nearly blotted out in black 
smoke, an agonizing sense of my desperate situation 
filled my mind. 

Why should I endeavor to keep life in myself 
until the very last second, only to endure all the 
suffering there was to be got out of the situation ? 
Why not seek some swift and easy method of escape 
from the inevitable torture staring me in the face ? 
I opened my pocket knife — it wasn’t very sharp, 
but still it might serve me at a pinch; how much 
better to open an artery and quietly pass away, than 
to be suffocated by smoke, or roasted by fire ! I sat 
thinking these desperate thoughts, and waiting, I 
presume, until my position should become absolutely 
unbearable, when I saw a man step across my little 
glimpse of light. Having fortunately just refreshed 
myself by a breath of fresh air, I let a desperate yell 
out of me, and saw him stop and look all around, as 
though saying to himself, “What was that?’’ “Here ! 
here ! ” I shouted ; “ right down in this hole, under 
your feet ! ” He looked down, and I recognized him 
as a brakeman by the name of Ben Shaw, belonging 
to the other train. “ Is there anybody down there ? ” 
he asked. “ Yes,” said I ; “ and for God’s sake hurry 
up ; get men and axes and cut me out ; I am nearly 
smothered, and can’t stand it much longer.” 

“ All right,” said he ; “ I’ll see what we can do ; but 
I don’t believe we can get you out, for the fire is 
coming this way awful fast.” 


A MISTAKE IN ORDER 


5 $ 


With this extremely unwelcome assurance he dis- 
appeared, but I could hear him shouting as he went, 
and soon — though it seemed long enough to me — 
he returned with others, armed with fence-stakes, 
and wrecking-axes, and they fell to with a will, pry- 
ing and chopping at the obstruction. On account of 
the smoke and heat, which was now almost unbear- 
able down where I lay, they were unable to work 
more than three or four minutes, when they would 
be driven away, gasping for breath, so that not one 
blow out of three was effective. A chance blow 
with an axe loosened a large section of the side of a 
car, which fell over, one corner striking me a severe 
blow on the head, cutting the scalp, and nearly 
knocking me senseless. While apparently opening 
the way, in reality it closed it, for it fell in such a 
manner that if I had been above it, I could easily 
have got out, but now I was completely covered in. 
It contained the door of the car, however, which was 
open a few inches, and if I could only pry that door 
back a little more, I should be able to get through. 
The question of life or death to me now was, could I 
do that ? 

I heard Simmons’ voice, interrupted by violent 
coughing and sneezing, say, “ How’s that? Can you 
get out now ? ” “ No,” said I ; “ you’ll have to come 

down in the hole and clear away the door.” 

“ Can’t do it ; we can’t stay here another minute, 
but I’ll throw you down these stakes, and maybe you 
can help yourself. Good-bye, old man; I’m awful 


56 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


sorry for you.” Then there was a clattering that 
told me he had thrown down the stakes as he said he 
would. 

My eyes were so blinded by the pungent wood 
smoke, and I was so nearly suffocated, that I had 
but little strength left. One of the stakes lay right 
across the slight opening in the door, and in trying 
to turn it to pull it through, I found I didn’t need it, 
as the door moved freely in its grooves. 

I quickly pushed the door back and by a great 
effort of will and my slight remaining strength 
dragged myself through the aperture. I wasn’t out 
yet though, for overhead there was a solid sheet of 
flame roaring in the wind like a furnace, and com- 
pletely covering my exit. Although still drenched 
with water, I could feel my hair curling with the in- 
tense heat. 

There was one course, and one only open to me ; 
so taking as long a breath as I could, I shut my eyes 
and made a dive for liberty. I scrambled upward, 
and outward, now burning my hands by contact with 
hot iron, and again tearing them on the jagged 
ends of broken wood, my head fairly bursting with 
the heat and suppressed respiration. Suddenly I 
stepped forward upon nothing ; having no hold 
with my hands I fell, struck on my side, rebounded 
and fell again, down, down, I could have sworn for 
miles — and then unconsciousness came over me. 

It seems that when I got out of the hole, I rushed 
blindly off the end of a blazing car, piled high in 


A MISTAKE IN ORDER 


5 7 


the wreck, and in falling I struck on various projec- 
tions of the wreckage, tearing off nearly all my cloth- 
ing, which was a providence, as I was all ablaze, and 
finally brought up with a dull thud, as the reporters 
say, on solid ground, shaking and bruising myself 
dreadfully, but almost miraculously breaking no 
bones, though I had fallen from a height of thirty 
feet. 

My leg which had hindered me so much was 
merely bruised and crushed, but was as black as 
your hat for a long time, and I was as bald as the 
day I was born. 

As a crowd of natives had already collected, my 
somewhat theatrical appearance was not without 
spectators. It was assumed that I was dead, but 
kind hands extinguished the fire in my few remaining 
rags, and it was not long before signs of life were 
discovered in the bruised and blackened object. 

I was carried to a near-by farmhouse and kindly 
cared for until the wrecking-train returned to town, 
when I was sent to hospital. 

Our engineer escaped without a scratch, but how 
he never knew ; for all he could remember was, that 
he was looking right at the number plate of the ap- 
proaching engine, and at the same time falling heels 
over head up the side of the cut. Of our fireman not 
a trace was ever found, and as I heard nothing of 
him while under the wreck, I have no doubt that he 
was instantly killed and his body burnt up. 

On the other engine, the whole crew, engineer, 


58 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


fireman, and head brakeman perished, and were con- 
sumed in the fierce flames that devoured the wreck 
and made a blast furnace of the narrow cut. We 
could only hope that they had been mercifully killed 
at once, and not slowly roasted alive, as so many have 
been, and will continue to be while railroads exist. 


CHAPTER VI 


INVESTIGATION OF THE WRECK — VICTIMIZED BY THE 

COMPANY TRAINMEN INDICTED ACQUITTED — 

DISAPPOINTMENT — TOM RILEY’S SAGE ADVICE — 
A RAILROAD AUTOCRAT — DISCHARGED — CHICAGO 
— FIRING 

I remained in hospital about a week ; during which 
time both the coroner and the company’s lawyer 
took my affidavit, as to what I knew of the orders by 
which we were running. I knew nothing about 
them, but I observed that the company’s attorney 
appeared anxious to have me remember having heard 
that we were to meet and pass train 3 1 at Brookdale, 
and appeared very much disappointed when I was 
unable to do so. 

Brookdale was the last switch that we passed 
before the collision. It was claimed by the company, 
and admitted by the conductor of train 31, that their 
orders read “meet and pass train 28 at Brookdale.” 
Our orders should have stated the same passing- 
point, and the company’s witnesses all swore they 
did; they even produced the operator’s copy with 
Simmons’ signature attached, in proof. Simmons 
swore the signature was forged, but as it corre- 
59 


6o 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


sponded with others which they produced on former 
orders, this statement had but little effect. 

Both Simmons and the engineer swore that their 
orders read “ Daly’s ” ; the flagman stated that Sim- 
mons invariably read the orders to him, asked him 
how he understood them, explained them if necessary, 
and then filed them on a hook in the caboose, where 
they remained open to inspection until fulfilled, when 
he put them in his desk, to be returned to the train- 
despatcher at the end of the trip ; he also swore that 
our order read “ Daly’s.” 

The engineer said he always read his copy of all 
orders to the conductor, to be sure they understood 
them alike ; he then filed them on a hook in the cab, 
and when the hook was full, threw them in the 
firebox. 

Asked by the company’s attorney if he made a prac- 
tice of reading his orders to the fireman and head 
brakeman, he said no; but if they asked what the 
orders were, he told them, and gave them any infor- 
mation they asked for. For this neglect to read 
orders to every man within reach he was severely 
censured by both the lawyer and the coroner, al- 
though there was no rule requiring him to do so ; 
“ For,” said the lawyer, “ if you had done so, probably 
some of those men might not have been quite so 
pigheaded as you are, and would have remembered 
that Brookdale was your meeting-point.” 

The engineer replied that he now wished he had, 
as in that case he would have had at least one wit- 


A RAILROAD AUTOCRAT 


6l 


ness (me) to prove that the despatcher was to blame 
for the wreck. 

As the conductor’s and the engineer’s copies had 
been destroyed in the fire, and as the majority of the 
evidence was against them, the coroner’s jury cen- 
sured them for the wreck, and they were indicted by 
the grand jury for manslaughter. 

During the time that elapsed between the indict- 
ment and the trial, the operator who received the 
order, and swore that it read “ Brookdale,” was trans- 
ferred from his little station in the woods to the best 
paying station on the road, and the conductor of 
train 3 1 was promoted over the heads of half a dozen 
older men, to a first-class passenger train. By these 
apparent acts of bribery, public opinion became so 
biassed against the company, that the defendants’ 
lawyer easily procured an acquittal, which threw the 
responsibility upon the company, and the suits for 
damages which ensued, with their rapidly accumulat- 
ing costs, finally bankrupted it. 

About a week after I left the hospital, as I felt 
able to return to work, I resolved to apply again for 
a fireman’s position, knowing that a vacancy existed, 
owing to the death of the man on train 31. I called 
on the master mechanic, whom I found alone in his 
office, and asked respectfully if he would give me 
the vacant place, reminding him that my application 
had been on file for some time. 

He was writing, and without even looking up an- 
swered “ No,” and that was all I could get out of him, 


62 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


though I tried to find out why he wouldn’t appoint 
me, and when I might expect him to do so. Feeling 
deeply disappointed, and not a little hurt at the 
manner of my reception, I walked out, and strolled 
over to the round-house, to have a look at the en- 
gines which had all at once become so unattainable 
to me. 

I had taken a great interest in the engines. It 
was a promotion, a step higher, to which I had 
looked forward with great eagerness, and now to 
have all my hopes dashed at once, and for no cause 
that I could see, was very discouraging. 

I espied Tom Riley at work on his engine and 
stated my case to him, asking what I could do now 
that the master mechanic had dashed my hopes. I 
told him how anxious I was to get on the left side 
of the locomotive, and begged the veteran for ad- 
vice. He listened to my tale of woe patiently, and 
appeared interested. When I finished, he said : — 

“ I’ll tell you where you made the mistake, boy.” 

“ Where ? ” said I, anxiously. 

“ In goin’ to that long, starved-to-death, white- 
livered hound of a master mechanic, an’ askin’ him 
for anything. Don’t ye know there’s only one thing 
he delights in more ’n another, an’ that is hearin’ that 
a man wasn’t killed in a wreck, so he can discharge 
him when he gits back ? I tell you, boy, you have 
done the only thing you could do to please him to- 
day, an’ that is, you gave him a chance to refuse 
you somethin’ ; but ’tain’t you he’s pleased with, its 


A RAILROAD AUTOCRAT 


63 


himself ; so his pleasure won’t do you no good, an’ 
don’t you delude yerself with the idee that ’twill. 
Do you know what he’s doin’ now? Wal, I’ll tell 
you ; he’s got two vacancies to fill : one is that of the 
fireman who was killed, an’ the other the engineer 
who was discharged for not gittin’ killed; an’ now 
he’s puzzlin’ his brains to find somebody that don’t 
want either of them jobs, but that is in his power, so 
he can make ’em take ’em agin their will. If you 
had gone into his office this mornin’ rippin’ an’ 
ravin’, an’ said, ‘ See here, I’ve heard that you was 
agoin’ to appoint me to the vacancy caused by the 
death of Pete Russell, an’ I’ve come in to let you 
know, that I don’t want it, an’ won’t have it under 
no consideration, an’ I wouldn’t work in your depart- 
ment for ten dollars a day.’ If you’d talked to him 
like that, he would have appointed you, an’ made 
you take it too ; but now of course it’s too late. The 
trouble with you young fellers is, that you’ve got so 
much infernal conceit, you think you know it all, so 
you won’t ask the advice of an old fool till you git 
stuck; then after you’ve made a complete mess of 
the whole business, then you come a whinin’ an’ a 
cryin’ round, an’ it’s, ‘Oh, Tom, what shall I do now?’ 
Well, I’ll tell you, the only thing you can do now is 
to go to the super; tell him jest how the case stands, 
an’ mebbe he’ll make the master mechanic app’int 
ye, an’ prob’ly he won’t; anyhow, that’s your only 
chance. An’ say, ye can tell him that ye are recom- 
mended by Mr. Thomas Riley, Engineer, if ye like.” 


6 4 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


“ All right,” said I, and thanking the old man for 
his advice, I went at once to the superintendent’s 
office, not, however, with any very great confidence 
in the success of my errand; for I had been long 
enough at the business now to know that there was 
such a thing as official courtesy on railroads, and I 
doubted that the superintendent would order the 
master mechanic to appoint me against his will. 

I was bound, however, to see the thing through, so 
I walked boldly into the office, and inquired for the 
superintendent. I learned that he was in, and sat 
down to wait the gentleman’s pleasure. A good 
long wait I had of it, too ; several times he came 
into the room where I was, but he was evidently 
very busy, and paid no attention to me. Presently 
he came rushing out with his hat on, pulling on his 
coat as he went, and his exit seemed to be the signal 
for dinner; for all the clerks bolted immediately in 
his rear, leaving me the sole occupant of the office. 
I, too, went home, bolted my dinner in a hurry, and 
hastened back, fearing to miss him on his return; 
for it is an old saying on the railroad, that the 
best time to catch a boss is on his return from lunch, 
when he is supposed to be in a good humor, and 
more apt to receive a petition favorably than at any 
other time. I found I was successful so far as that 
he had not returned before me. 

I sat and squirmed in discomfort on that hard 
bench until after three o’clock ; then he came bus- 
tling in, and as usual passed me by. Tired with my 


A RAILROAD AUTOCRAT 


65 


long wait, I tiptoed to the chief clerk’s desk and asked 
in a whisper if he thought Mr. Wilkes would see me 
now. “ What do you want with him ? ” said he. I told 
him I was seeking a fireman’s position on the road. 
As he didn’t appear to have anything else to do, he 
amused himself by pumping the whole story out of 
me, and then coolly told me he didn’t think the super 
would see me that day, as he was very busy. I had 
better call some other time. His offhand way of 
disposing of what was a very important matter to me, 
roused my ire to such an extent that I declined to act 
on his suggestion, but, on the contrary, I promised 
myself that I would see and speak to that super, even 
if I had to force my way into his sanctum. 

It was nearly five o’clock when he appeared, 
bound, as I felt sure, for home. “Now or never,” 
said I, and I stepped up to the gentleman, asking for 
a few minutes of his valuable time. He stopped 
short, whirled half-round, pulled out an old-fashioned 
silver watch with a jerk, looked at it abstractedly, 
for a moment, and then asked brusquely, “Well, 
what is it? Talk quick now; I’m in a hurry.” I 
stated my case as briefly as possible. “ Well, what 
do you want me to do? ” said he. 

I told him that Mr. Tom Riley, an engineer, had 
advised me to see him, thinking, perhaps, he might 
intercede with the master mechanic in my behalf. 

“ Ever railroad any ? ” 

“ Yes, sir ; nearly two years on this road.” 

“What doing?” 


66 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


“ Braking, sir.” 

“ When did you quit ? ” 

“ I haven’t quit at all ; I was braking for Simmons 
at the time of the wreck, and have just come from 
the hospital.” 

His face flushed angrily, as he replied, “ The h — 
you were ! Well, I admire your gall ! ” Turning to the 
head clerk, he added, “ Mr. Clark, have this fellow’s 
time made out, and hand it to him,” and he was 
off. 

“ Have this fellow’s time made out.” That meant 
that I was discharged, and in Heaven’s name, for 
what ? I was not conscious of having done anything 
to merit such harsh treatment, and the sudden ver- 
dict, from which I knew there was no appeal, nearly 
floored me. It was a new experience, and as unex- 
pected as it was unwelcome. It was some time before 
I was able to obtain any information explaining the 
super’s conduct; at last, however, a brakeman told 
me that I had been discharged ever since the wreck, 
only, having been in hospital, I had not heard of it. 

“ So,” said he, “ when you told him you was still 
on the road, he thought you had come up to the of- 
fice to have a little fun with him, and it made him 
mad.” 

Have fun with the superintendent ? Not I. I had 
not yet reached the reckless stage of the hardened 
veteran who smokes his pipe in the powder magazine. 

I asked the braky why I should be discharged, as 
I had no hand in causing the wreck. “You refused 


A RAILROAD AUTOCRAT 67 

to swear that the meet and pass order read Brook- 
dale, didn’t you ? ” 

“ Certainly ; how could I swear when I didn’t know 
anything about it ? ” 

“Well, that’s your misfortune, my boy; if you 
can’t swear to what the company wants, just because 
you don’t know, you must expect to suffer for your 
lack of ability,” saying which, he left me with the air 
of a superior being who had kindly shed some of his 
superabundant light on my benighted ignorance. 

After the first shock of bitter disappointment I 
took a philosophical view of the situation. It was 
not, after all, such a dreadful thing to be discharged. 
I remembered how I had heard the men frequently, 
in relating their experiences, laugh heartily at old So- 
and-so, who had fired them for accidents, or infraction 
of rules, as though it was a joke. I could now travel, 
see how work was done on other roads, and with the 
swagger of an old hand make use of the time-honored 
phrase, “where I come from,” that somewhat hazy 
and indefinite locality where everything is perfect, in 
glittering contrast with “ this road,” which is “ the 
worst I ever saw.” 

At twelve o’clock that night I boarded a Chicago- 
bound freight train, for I was determined hereafter to 
railroad only from the great centre itself. The crew 
of the train, who were all my friends, made me com- 
fortable in the caboose, expressed themselves as sorry 
to see me going, but advised me to keep a stiff upper 
lip, saying that I would have no trouble getting a job 


68 


THE GENERAL MANAGER'S STORY 


in Chicago, where experienced railroad men were al- 
ways in demand ; for at that time the country was not 
overrun with them, as it is now. I was passed along 
from one road to another, my transportation costing 
me nothing, until one morning bright and early I 
landed in Chicago, with a little money in my pocket, 
my heart as light as a feather, strong, confident, and 
fearless, and I set out in search of that which so many 
are always seeking — a job. I determined to brake no 
more. I would only try for a fireman’s position, and to 
my inexperience it seemed that I would only have to let 
it be generally known that I was ready to go to work, 
to have all the trunk lines contending for my valuable 
services. Undue self-appreciation is, however, easily 
corrected. Before looking for employment I did 
what every countryman always does, — took in the 
sights ; and as I remember them they were not very 
wonderful, therefore they filled my uncultivated mind 
with wonder. 

This mild dissipation encroached on my treasury 
to such an extent as to remind me that my visit to 
the metropolis was one of business, and not pleasure ; 
so after a couple of days’ sight-seeing, I started out in 
earnest to find employment. 

My first day’s catch amounted only to a fine assort- 
ment of refusals, the second was a repetition of the 
first, and I began to realize that Chicago would have 
survived some time without my presence within her 
borders. 

On the third day as I was strolling rather listlessly 


A RAILROAD AUTOCRAT 


69 


through a certain round-house, I overheard a con- 
versation between the foreman and caller, which told 
me that there was a fireman wanted in a hurry. As 
I was now at that stage in the game where any job 
was a good job, I stepped up to the man and asked 
if he was the round-house foreman. He said he was. 

“I’m looking for a job, sir,” said I. 

“ Can you fire ? ” 

“Yes, sir.” 

“ Where have you fired ?” 

“On the road.” 

“ All right ; go over to the master mechanic’s office 
and ask for Mr. Seely, tell him Phelps sent you, and 
if he hires you, come right back to me. I want you 
to go out on that engine right away. Hurry up, now ! ” 

“ All right, sir,” said I, and away I went on the 
run, stealing a hasty glance, as I went, at the engine 
standing at the water-plug. As I remember her now, 
she was a common enough old trap ; but I thought 
then that she was a masterpiece, and mentally prayed 
that I might be hired, and appointed to preside over 
the scoop and tallow-pot of that magnificent road- 
ster. 

My business with the head of the mechanical de- 
partment was briefly and satisfactorily settled, and 
he told me to report to Phelps at once. 

Phelps told me to “ git right on to 227 ; there’s the 
oil-room,” pointing to a low, dingy structure. “ Hurry 
up now ; git yer supplies, an’ git out o’ here ! ” So 
I was hired. 


CHAPTER VII 


HE CATCHES A TARTAR — ALL PREVIOUS RECORDS 
BROKEN — JOSEPH H. GRINNELL, THE OMNIPOTENT 

ENGINEER DEFIANCE HE MAKES FRIENDS 

HAULED UPON THE CARPET DISCHARGED AGAIN 

— FRIENDS IN NEED — PHELPS IS PLEASED — HE 
“ WIPES ” FOR FIFTEEN MONTHS — SQUARES AC- 
COUNTS WITH JOSEPH H. GRINNELL 

As I stepped up on the tender and opened the oil- 
box to get the cans, the most disagreeable-looking 
face that I ever saw presented itself at the opposite 
gangway, and a thin, squeaky voice called out : — 

“ Hey ! what are ye up to ? What ye doin’ there ? ” 
I asked him if he was the engineer. 

“ Who d’ye s’pose I be, ye blamed fool ? The presi- 
dent of the road ? ” 

“No,” said I; “I thought you was the board of 
directors.” 

“ The h — 11 you did ! Well, now you git down out 
o’ there, and direct yourself somewheres else.” 

“ Say, Pap,” said I, “ I don’t know nor care a con- 
tinental who you are; but I’m going to fire this en- 
gine to-night, and if you don’t like it, now ’s your time 
to kick.” 

That made him mad. He shoved his oil-can and 

70 


CATCHES A TARTAR 


7 1 


wrench up into the tender, and away he went across 
the yard shouting, “ Hey, Phelps ! ” But Phelps kept 
out of his way. When I got back from the oil-room, 
he was in the cab waiting for me, and the instant I 
set the cans upon the foot-board, he rang the bell 
and gave her a vicious jerk back ; but I had climbed 
too many flying freight cars to be disturbed by that. 
I swung myself lightly aboard, and gave him a black 
look, which didn’t mend matters any ; for I was satis- 
fied that he was a crank, and that it would be poor 
policy for me to knuckle too much to him, although 
in those days a locomotive engineer was a much more 
important functionary than he is now, when the 
woods are full of them. 

Well, at last we got our train and got out on the 
road. We didn’t have a very heavy train, and I was 
satisfied that I could keep her hot without any trouble, 
and so I could, if he hadn’t worked against me in 
every way. He would let her blow all her steam and 
water away, until he struck a heavy grade, and then 
put on his pump full head, and drown her, running 
the steam down so that we “ stalled ” and had to 
“ double” up every little hill, and thereby “ laid out ” 
the “fast mail” fifteen minutes — an unpardonable 
sin. 

He also “dropped her down a notch” for me, so 
that she threw a constant stream of sky-rockets out 
of her stack, and, as I told the master mechanic when 
he had me on the carpet the next day, a steam shovel 
couldn’t have kept coal in her that night. 


72 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


Consequently we ran out of fuel before reaching 
the end of the division, and had to stop at the freight 
coaling-station and coal up — a thing that had never 
happened to that train before. 

That was a tough run for me, and I found out the 
reason for it afterwards. Old Joe had powerful in- 
fluence in high quarters, which made him, to a cer- 
tain extent, independent of the master mechanic, so 
that he did pretty much as he pleased, and, being of 
a low, mean disposition, he pleased to abuse everybody 
who came in his way ; and as nobody came so much 
in his way as his fireman, he made it so disagreeable 
for that unfortunate, that several of them had left the 
road to get away from him, and he had got several 
others discharged. 

When I, a perfect stranger, gave him “sass,” he 
knew that he could lay out the whole road safely by 
blaming it on me, as it would hardly pay the master 
mechanic to say anything to him. 

All the firemen feared him, and he knew it ; so, on 
this particular occasion, when it became known that 
Joe’s fireman was sick, all the others made it a point 
to be away from home when the caller made his 
rounds with orders to call the first man he found off 
duty. 

It was to this combination of circumstances that I 
owed my job— such as it was. For the first time 
in his life, I suppose, he got a fireman who had the 
audacity to talk back to him — to him, Joseph H. 
Grinnell. Who ever heard of such a thing? Is it 


CATCHES A TARTAR 73 

any wonder that he determined to cut short my career 
on that road ? 

The first time she “dropped her bundle,” — which 
occurred less than half way up the first hill, and 
before we had gone five miles on our way, — he shut 
her off, slammed the reverse lever down in the cor- 
ner with a bang, and, folding his arms, leaned back 
in his seat, and ripped out the most horrible string of 
profanity I ever heard, every word of which was a 
curse at me personally. 

I, being a stranger on the road, and not having the 
fear of old Joe’s displeasure properly engrafted on my 
mind, waited until he got through; then, stepping over 
to his side, I grabbed him roughly by the shoulder, and 
twisting him half round on his seat, I said : — 

“See here, you foul-mouthed old beast, I’ve got 
something to say to you now. In the first place, it’s 
your fault and not mine that we’re stalled here, 
because you don’t know your business a little bit ; 
where I came from they wouldn’t give you a job 
wheeling ashes out to the dump ; and now one thing 
more, if you open your head to me again while I am 
on this engine, to say one word, good, bad, or indif- 
ferent, I’ll split you wide open with this shovel, and 
if you have any doubt about it, you can satisfy your- 
self right away.” 

He didn’t say another word to me ; but as I said 
before, the trip was a record-breaker. We got to the 
end of the division nine hours late, had four hours lay 
over, and returned, repeating the performance even 


7 4 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


worse than on the up trip ; for, as part of this run 
occurred during the forenoon, when the inward-bound 
passenger trains were thick on the road, he managed 
to lay out three of them. 

Before we started on the return trip, the conductor 
came up to the engine while I was taking water, and 
said, — 

“ Say, young feller, the head braky tells me that 
you set old Joe’s packin’ out for him in mighty 
good shape last night. Is that so ? ” 

“ Oh, I don’t know,” said I. “ Why ? ” 

“ Why ? Well, I’ll tell you why : because if you 
did, you’ve made a friend of every man on the division 
except Joe himself ; and as you couldn’t make a friend 
of him anyway, that’s no loss. But, of course, I 
s’pose you know you’re discharged ; no man could lay 
the whole road out the way you did and go out again. 
But don’t you be in any hurry to leave town ; for 
maybe some of us can do something for you, and, 
at any rate, if you ever want any assistance from 
anybody on this road, all you’ve got to do is to say 
that you are the man that made old Joe Grinnell take 
water, and the boys won’t be able to do enough for 
you.” 

When we got back, we both got off the engine, and 
found the round-house foreman waiting for us. He 
said the master mechanic wanted to see us both in 
the office at once, so in we went and reported our- 
selves. 

“ Well, Mr. Grinnell,” said the master mechanic, 


CATCHES A TARTAR 


7 5 


“ I have a report here from the division superinten- 
dent, in which he informs me that the road wasn’t 
big enough for the 227 last trip. What was the 
matter with her ? ” 

“Nawthin’,” said Grinnell. 

“ Nothing ? What do you mean by that ? Some- 
thing must have been the matter.” 

“Yes, somethin’ was the matter, an’ a d — d sight 
the matter too. Look here, Mr. Seely, I want you to 
understand that the 227 is a first-class engine in every 
respect, an’ that I’m a first-class engineer ; but Phelps 
has got a notion of fishin’ up all sorts of canallers, 
an’ truck-drivers, an’ sendin’ ’em out to fire for me, 
an’ I’m jist about sick of it, ’n’ don’t want no more.” 

“ Do you mean to tell me, then, that you laid out 
the whole road just because the fireman didn’t suit 
you ? ” 

“No, I don’t. What I mean to say is, that I 
didn’t hev no fireman ; only a cowboy that never 
fired an engine before, an’ threatened to split me 
wide open with the scoop jest because I told him 
he’d hev to keep her hot, or we’d never git there.” 

“Did you threaten Mr. Grinnell?” said Mr. Seely 
to me. 

“Yes, sir,” said I. 

“Oho ! you did, hey? Is that the way firemen talk 
to their engineers where you came from ? ” 

“No, sir,” said I. “But our engineers were men, 
while this old brute is a — ” 

“ There ! there ! that will do. I don’t want any 


76 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


quarrelling in my office ; you can call in to-morrow 
and get your time.” 

So here I was discharged again. It was very dis- 
couraging, but then I could expect nothing else, for 
Joe was an old engineer on the road, and I was what ? 
Merely a straggler that had been picked up in an 
emergency. 

Right here is as good a place as any to make a few 
remarks concerning the relations existing between 
engineers and firemen, also in regard to the status of 
the fireman himself. 

No fireman can keep an engine “hot,” except with 
the strictest cooperation on the part of the engineer. 
In order that the engine shall steam, it is imperative 
that the engineer shall cut his steam off as short as 
possible, and run his pump according to certain rules 
well known to the fraternity. In other words, it is 
no trouble at all to the engineer to “ knock out ” the 
best fireman that ever handled a shovel. 

Did you ever see the fireman of any train that you 
ever rode on? Probably not. You frequently see 
the engineer, and always the conductor and brake- 
men ; but the fireman is seldom seen, and never 
heard of, except when he gets killed or hurt in a 
wreck ; and yet in some respects he is the most 
important man on the train. 

Not only do all engineers invariably depend on 
him to perform many of the duties properly belong- 
ing to themselves, but he it is who bends his back, 
and hustles to make steam to get the train in on 


CATCHES A TARTAR 


77 


time, frequently with miserable fuel and an engine 
that ought to be in the scrap-heap. When time is 
lost for the want of steam, it is on the fireman’s 
devoted head that the wrath of the engineer, master 
mechanic, and superintendent falls ; no excuse being 
accepted, even though it be evident to anybody that 
the coal is 70 per cent slate, and the valves and 
pistons blow like sieves. 

Though all the train-despatchers, brass-bound con- 
ductors, and engineers do their level best, no train 
can make time or break a record unless the grimy, 
unheard of, and unthought-about fireman, down there 
in his black hole, knows his business, and does it. 

Yet no praise comes to him for the good run, 
though he is the one man on the train who has 
labored and sweated to make it, and to whose skill 
and knowledge it is largely due. 

Well, there was no use crying over spilt milk, so 
I went to the round-house, washed up, and then went 
to get something to eat. I ran across the conductor, 
who was bound on the same errand, and told him 
what had occurred in the master mechanic’s office, 
and also gave him a short account of myself. I 
found that he knew my former conductor, and had 
heard of the wreck which was the cause of all of 
us getting discharged. He was quite friendly and 
invited me to sleep in his caboose during its stay at 
that end of the division, and get acquainted with the 
boys. “ For,” said he, “ railroad men when looking 
for a job are not apt to be very rich, and there’s nq 


78 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


use of paying for lodgings while the yard is half full 
of cabooses.” 

I accepted his invitation thankfully and found that 
I was quite a hero. The men took delight in intro- 
ducing me as the fellow who had bearded old Joe in 
his cab, and yet survived to tell the tale. 

They also liked to hear me tell of my experience 
in what is still remembered by old railroaders as the 
Brookdale disaster. 

The result of their hospitality was, that three days 
passed before I returned to the master mechanic’s 
office for the bill of my time. On leaving the office 
I ran across Mr. Phelps, who asked me to accompany 
him to the round-house. He took me away round 
out of sight and hearing, behind a big freight engine, 
and asked what was the trouble between Grinnell 
and me. 

I told him all that happened on the trip, but before 
I got through he said, “ Never mind all that ; I want 
to know what it was that you said to him.” 

When I told him, a broad smile spread over his 
face, as he asked, — 

“ Did you tell him that ? ” 

“Yes, sir,” said I. 

“ What did he say ? ” 

“Not a word to me from that time to this.” 

“ Haw ! haw ! haw ! by George, that’s good ! ” And 
he leaned up against the tender and laughed, and 
slapped himself till the dust flew out of his overalls 
in clouds. 


CATCHES A TARTAR 


79 


“I'd have been willin’ to lose a month’s pay to 
have seen ole Joe then,” said he. “ Say, young feller, 
I can’t give you a job firin’ just yet ; Joe’s queered 
you for a bit, but I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll set 
you to wipin’, an’ give you the first chance. What 
do you say ? ” 

“ How long will it be before you can give me a job 
firing ? ” said I. 

“ Oh ! I can’t tell that ; nobody can. Maybe in 
thirty days, maybe in six months ; but you’re sure of 
a job sooner or later, an’ in the meantime you can 
git acquainted with the men an’ engines, an’ that’s 
better than to start in somewhere bran new and git 
dumped again, ain’t it ? ” 

I told him I thought it might be in some respects ; 
still I didn’t care to wipe engines, as that is the very 
lowest rung in the ladder, besides being extremely 
dirty and disagreeable work. 

He assured me, however, that both the master 
mechanic and himself, as well as nearly all the 
engineers on the road, had begun as wipers. He 
said that was the proper way for a man to learn any 
trade, to begin at the bottom ; and in fine, he said so 
much, and seemed so anxious to have me take the 
job, that I accepted, and have never regretted it to 
this day. 

For fifteen months I wiped engines, turned the 
table, shoveled ashes, washed out boilers and tanks, 
helped the machinists to lug and lift, and in fact did 
all manner of the dirtiest and hardest work that has 


8 o 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


to be done about a railroad round-house. For the 
wipers are everybody’s helpers. Is a particularly 
hard job to be done, get one of the wipers to do it ; if 
a sewer gets clogged, send a wiper in to clear it ; and 
who ever heard of a wiper complaining ? They seem 
to glory in and thrive on dirt. 

During those fifteen months I became, from con- 
stant association, perfectly familiar with all the out- 
ward and visible parts of the locomotive, and I saw 
them taken to pieces by the mechanics, and as I was 
blessed with a good-sized bump of inquisitiveness, I 
also learned enough of the mysterious properties of 
the slide valve to enable me to take part in the 
deeply erudite discussions which frequently took 
place among the firemen. I became — in my own 
opinion, at any rate — an authority on “lap” and 
“lead,” “compression,” “expansion,” and “cut off.” 

There is no other way in which a green man can 
learn so well and so thoroughly every detail of the 
machine, as he can by going over it daily, wiping all 
its parts carefully, and observing what each one is for. 

The wipers are severe critics of the engineers ; 
they know whose engine is always in first-class order, 
nuts and bolts all in place and tight, wedges never 
down, and everything where it ought to be. 

It seemed as if some engineers depended on the 
wipers to look out for broken spring leaves and 
hangers, cracked equalizers and eccentric straps, and 
nearly everything else; but there were some who 
looked their engines over with the greatest care, and 


CATCHES A TARTAR 


8l 


one of these was old Joe Grinnell. He didn’t want 
any help from anybody, and was quite free in saying 
so, too ; but I was lucky enough to discover some- 
thing that he had missed one day, and it did me a 
world of good. 

He couldn’t help seeing me about the round-house, 
as I was nearly always at work on his engine when 
he came to get her ready, and see that the repairs he 
had reported were done properly before going out, 
but he never took the slightest notice of me. I was 
too far beneath him to be even worth d — ing. 

The engine truck was a part that was assigned to 
me to wipe, and one day I noticed that the male cen- 
tre casting was broken in such a way that but one 
bolt held it at all, and that very slightly. I supposed, 
of course, that he had reported it, and expected every 
minute to see the men come along with the jacks and 
jack her up to put in a new one; for though there is 
a king-pin down through both castings, still no man 
would ever trust to that alone, for she would be apt, 
in rounding some curve, to shear it off, and, shooting 
off at a tangent, leave the track. 

What was my surprise, then, as the time drew near 
for her to leave the house, to see that no attempt was 
made to repair the damage, until at last the hostler 
took her out across the table. I had been long 
enough in the round-house now to get the hang of 
things pretty well, so I hunted up Mr. Phelps and 
told him what I had discovered on the 227. 

“ Is that so ? ” said he ; “ are you sure ? ” 


82 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


“Yes, sir,” said I ; “there’s no doubt about it.” 

We walked rapidly round the house and came to 
the hook on which the machinists hang the engineers’ 
work reports after finishing the job and marking them 
O. K. 

He hunted the hook over until he found the 227’s 
report signed, Grinnell, O. K’d., and signed by the 
man who had done the work. There were several 
little petty jobs reported, but not a word about the 
centre casting. 

Mr. Phelps’ eyes sparkled with pleasure, as he saw 
that old Joe had tripped at last. 

“D — n him,” said he; “if there was only him to 
think of, I’d let him go, — ’twould be an almighty good 
way to git rid of him ; but there are good men who 
would have to suffer too.” 

From where we stood we could see Joe oiling 
around ; no time was to be lost, for we didn’t want 
him to discover it, though, even if he did, it would be 
too late now to save himself from censure — still we 
desired to catch him as foul as possible. 

Turning to me, Mr. Phelps said, “ I’ll get the old 
man out, an’ walk him past the engine, an’ you be 
close by, an’ just as we get to Joe, you tell him his 
centre castin’s broke.” 

“All right, sir,” said I, and away he went post 
haste after the master mechanic, while I sauntered 
out in the direction of the 227. 

Joe was oiling his engine truck boxes, and I was 
in a flutter, for fear he might look underneath and 










































































Mr. Grinnell, your engine truck centre casting is broken 
all to pieces ’ ” — p. 83. 


CATCHES A TARTAR 


83 


discover it for himself ; but fortunately another engi- 
neer came along just then and engaged him in con- 
versation, thereby distracting his attention. 

Directly I saw Mr. Seely and Mr. Phelps coming 
rapidly in our direction from the office, I got within 
about ten feet of old Joe, and just as they were pass- 
ing, called out loud enough for everybody to hear : 

“ Mr. Grinnell, your engine truck centre casting is 
broken all to pieces, and just about ready to fall off.” 

Joe’s face was like a thunder-cloud as he told me 
to mind my own d — d business, if I had any. 

The officials had heard my report, and stopping 
short, Mr. Seely asked Joe what was the matter with 
his centre casting. 

“NawthinY’ said Joe; “ only this wiper’s found a 
mare’s nest. I guess I’m competent to look after 
my own engine without any help from the wipers.” 

Mr. Seely, however, looked under the engine him- 
self, and seeing that I was right, ordered her back 
into the house, and a spare engine got ready in a 
hurry, and then he read the riot act to Mr. Joseph 
H. Grinnell in a manner that the oldest “plug- 
puller ” on the road had never heard equalled. 

He told him that he was the most ignorant, use- 
less, and conceited fool he had ever seen ; he told 
him he was neither an engineer, a man, mouse, 
monkey, nor anything else. He said it was only his 
influence at headquarters, and not his ability, that 
had caused the road to be cumbered with his useless 
carcass so long as it had. 


8 4 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


At first Joe answered back pretty stiffly, but as he 
knew he was dead wrong, he couldn’t say much. 

The old man had him just where he had wanted to 
get him for years, and he did him up brown. 

The engineers, firemen, wipers, and in fact every- 
body about the place, came running from all direc- 
tions to help hear old Joe get his tongue-lashing. 
The downfall of that old brute was most gorgeous, 
and satisfactory to everybody — except Joe. 

As a grand finale, the old man, after calling him 
everything but a “ first-class engineer,” sent him 
home for ten days, charged with incompetency. 

After that Mr. Joseph could seldom go near the 
round-house without hearing from behind some far- 
off engine the derisive cry of “centre casting,” 
“mare’s nest,” “wipers’ reports,” or something 
equally suggestive of the day when he got what he 
had been so long aching for. 


CHAPTER VIII 


CUTTING A CONDUCTOR IN TWO — FIRING FOR “ POUND- 
ERS ” OLD POP FICKETT A LEAP FOR LIFE 

PHEW ! — PROMOTED TO THE LEFT SIDE — DIS- 
CHARGED — APPEAL TO HEADQUARTERS 

The next morning when I came to work, Mr. 
Phelps told me to go home again, and return at 6 p.m. 
to relieve a fireman on one of the switch engines. 
My wiping days were now over, and once more I 
found myself on the left side of a locomotive. Dur- 
ing those fifteen months of wiping I had come to 
regard the fireman’s position as being little less un- 
attainable than the president’s ; so having earned my 
job, I appreciated it, and felt all the pride of owner- 
ship as I stepped on to the foot-board of that old 
switch engine. 

I took an immediate and fierce hold of the brass 
work, for I was determined to have the cleanest 
engine in the yard ; but when the engineer saw what 
I was about, he said : “ Say ! ye d — d fool, what 
ye tryin’ ter do ? this ain’t no cannon-ball engine. 
Set down there ’n’ watch out fer signals ! ” Being 
extremely sensitive to ridicule, the jeering tone in 
which he spoke was like a cold douche to my ardent 
ambition, and I very soon learned to content myself 
85 


86 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


with the regular routine work, without attempting to 
introduce radical reforms into the yard engine ser- 
vice. On the second day, the engineer asked me if 
I thought I could handle her. I said, I guessed so, 
and stepping out from alongside the boiler, he said, 
“ All right, then ; get hold o’ this bat, an’ let’s see ye 
shape yerself.” 

I was somewhat nervous at first. It startled me 
to feel her go the instant that I touched the throttle, 
and though I knew perfectly how she ought to be 
handled, yet I found it confusing when I came to 
do it myself. The throttle, reverse lever, and brake 
seemed to be in each other’s way, and I couldn’t find 
them with my hands without looking for them — an 
act that is rankly unprofessional. Then again, I would 
catch myself just in the act of giving her steam, 
when I should have reversed her first, calling forth 
profane and jeering remarks from the engineer, which 
were extremely mortifying. The engineer stayed with 
me about an hour, watching me sharply, and giving 
me lots of advice. I took it as I was in duty bound ; 
but as it was none of it news to me, I paid but little 
attention, resolving that if I ever had the chance I 
would do these things to suit myself ; but, of course, 
I didn’t dare let him know that. I soon gained con- 
fidence, and as I kept a sharp lookout for signals, 
and obeyed them promptly, the engineer — satisfied 
that I could do the work — stepped off and went into 
the yard-master’s office to “chin.” He had not been 
off the engine ten minutes when I cut the conductor 


PROMOTED TO THE LEFT SIDE 87 

in two; or, rather, he was accidentally cut in two, 
partly owing to his own fault. 

He undertook to make a “ double cut,” that is, to 
cut off two sections of the moving train, and send 
each into its own proper switch without stopping. 
When properly done, it is a neat manoeuvre, and a 
great time-saver. There should be a man at each 
switch — one to pull the pin, and one to watch the 
performance and give signals to the engineer. The 
pin may be pulled on the first section before com- 
mencing to back, then the pin-puller stands by to 
make the second cut. The engine starts back until 
there is way enough on the first cut to carry it into 
its switch ; then at a signal the engineer shuts off, 
and the dead engine acting as a drag holds back 
the main part of the train, while the cut-off cars 
roll on ahead to their switch, which the man who is 
stationed there opens, allowing them to run in, and 
closes it after them. The engineer, on signal, now 
gives her another jerk back, the pin-puller pulls the 
pin, and when there is way enough on the second 
cut to carry it to its destination, the same perform- 
ance is gone through with again, this time the whole 
of the remaining train and engine passing over the 
closed switch to its destination further up the yard. 

With men enough — provided there is no grade to 
stop the cars from rolling — cars could be sent into 
all the switches along the line, without the engine 
stopping at all ; but in this case the conductor only 
had one man, and when he told him what he in- 


88 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


tended to do, the brakey remonstrated, saying: “Ye’ll 
have them all over the d — d carpet.” The conductor, 
however, told him to mind his own business, and do 
as he was ordered. As it turned out, the brakey was 
right ; for he did spread them all over the carpet, and 
lost his life besides. He told the brakeman to open 
the first switch, and then run to the next, saying that 
he would close it himself after pulling the pin. But 
when he ran in a hurry to close it, he stumbled over 
the end of a tie, so that before he got it closed, the 
forward truck of the leading car had entered the 
siding, and the switch being closed the cars went off 
the track. Seeing them going in all directions, he 
desired to set a brake to hold them when, in jump- 
ing up between two flat cars, one corner rose above 
the other, and shearing across it clipped him in two, 
as a lady snips a thread with her scissors. 

The engineer was discharged for allowing me to 
handle the engine, and for many a night after that 
I saw the poor man in my dreams. He had been 
looking straight in my eyes, when his light went out. 

I fired nearly four years ; and though firing is the 
hardest kind of work, I look back to those four years 
as the happiest of my life. 

I never came across quite such another crank as 
old Joe Grinnell, for as a rule the engineers were 
fine fellows. Every man jack of them, having served 
his apprenticeship at the scoopshovel, realized the 
drawbacks and discomforts of the fireman’s position, 
and tried to make it as endurable as possible. 


PROMOTED TO THE LEFT SIDE 89 

Some, while meaning well, had failed during their 
apprenticeship to learn from their engineers how to 
run and feed (pump) the machine to the best advan- 
tage, so they made hard work for the fireman to keep 
steam. Those we called “ pounders,” and as a rule 
they were the very ones who would take no hints 
from their firemen, but instantly became dignified 
and talked loftily about how I pump and run my 
engine. 

Shortly after I was appointed, I was sent to fire 
for old Pop Fickett. He was a jolly old soul, easy- 
going as an old shoe, and would often on a cold night 
get down and fire himself for a dozen or twenty miles 
to get warm, while I sat on his seat and played 
engineer, blowing for crossings, and watching the 
water. 

Old Pop was a hard man to fire for, because he was 
a pounder; but I hadn’t been long enough at the 
business to know that, so I shovelled away for dear 
life and was ignorant and happy. 

One trip Pop reported sick, and an extra engineer 
took her out. As a rule, firemen hate to see an 
extra man get on the engine, as he has different 
ways from the man you are used to, and railroad men 
of all degrees get set in their ways and don’t like to 
have them disturbed. 

This extra man, however, was a genuine and 
pleasant surprise to me. With old Pop at the throt- 
tle I always had to bend my back as soon as he 
pulled her out and keep the shovel and the firebox 


90 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


door on the swing as regular as the pendulum of 
a clock. 

No need to hook the fire ; for as Pop said, he’d 
keep it from freezing up on me, and so he did too ; 
for I wouldn’t have a chance to stop shovelling until 
he shut her off. No need to worry myself by look- 
ing at the steam-gauge ; for as Pop said again, he 
could take care of all the steam I could make. 

There were two coaling stations on the division, 
each about twenty miles from either terminus, for the 
convenience of engines that needed more coal to take 
them in. We never passed them, — indeed, we some- 
times had trouble to reach them, — although Pop 
had sideboards put on the tender, saying he liked to 
have plenty of coal ; and when other engineers 
bragged about how many water-plugs they passed, 
and how many cars they hauled without taking coal, 
Pop would remark sagely that “ he alius liked to have 
coal an’ water enough,” — and he did too. 

Well, when the extra man started I began as usual 
to “ladle in the lampblack” until we were about five 
miles out, when he called me up to him and asked 
me if there was a hole through the front end of the 
firebox. 

“No,” said I. “Why?” 

“ What is the trouble, then ? Is there somebody 
buried back there, an’ you’re trying to dig him out ? ” 

I stared at him, wondering what he was talking 
about. Seeing that I didn’t understand, he said, 
“For Heaven’s sake, man, get up there on your seat 


PROMOTED TO THE LEFT SIDE 


91 


an’ sit down ! I never saw anybody shovel coal like 
you do; you’ve got enough in there to run to the 
next water-plug now. I can’t put any more water 
into her till we get there; so crack your door an’ 
let’s have a smoke.” 

I did as he told me to ; and yet, though I saw by 
the gauge that we had, as the boys say, “a hundred 
an’ enough,” I was worried ; and at last, when I 
could stand it no longer, fearing that my fire would 
go entirely out, I stepped down and picked up my 
scoop again. 

“ Say,” said he, “hand me that scoop a minute.” 

I did so, wondering what he wanted of it. 

He threw it on the foot-board in front of him, and 
told me if I didn’t sit down and rest myself until we 
got to the water-plug he would report me for wasting 
the company’s fuel. 

That trip was a revelation to me. We not only 
ran by half the water-plugs and the coal station, but 
made the run in two hours’ less time than usual, 
arriving with nearly half a tank of coal left, although 
we had our regular train of forty-five loads. 

The next day I asked him how it was done. He 
took me to his side of the cab and showed me a notch 
in the quadrant that was worn smooth and bright. 

“ That,” said he, “ is the notch Pop runs her in.” 
Then he showed me where he ran her, and gave me 
the most lucid explanation of early cutting off and 
running expansively, and of its effect on the coal-pile 
and water-tank, that I had ever heard. 


94 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


We had on the fast freight, a light time table train 
of perishable goods ; for Pop had made such a record 
for speed lately, that being an old and in all respects 
a first-class man, they had given him this train. We 
had (or supposed we had) a clear track before us, and 
he was wheeling them for dear life. 

I was hooking up my fire (I had to do that now 
occasionally since the new style of running had come 
into vogue), when suddenly he shut her off and blew 
brakes. I couldn’t see a thing after looking into the 
bright fire, but I heard him yell, “ Git out of here ! ” 

You may be sure that I had learned to jump long 
before this ; so without waiting for a written invitation, 
and not wishing to get off on my side and be rolled 
over and torn by the ties and rails of the opposite 
track, I shut my teeth hard and made a flying leap, 
out into the darkness on the right side as far as I 
could go, thinking to myself as I went that I hoped 
I wouldn’t strike a telegraph pole — and I didn’t. 

We were just entering a small country town ; an 
opposing freight train had occasion to cross over to 
our track, so the engineer sent the head man out 
with orders to let us pass (as we were nearly due) 
and hold all second-class trains after that until he 
called him in. In a case of this kind, it is under- 
stood that the engineer and conductor will clear 
the track in time to allow first-class trains to pass ; 
that is, the flagman has orders to hold only second- 
class trains, i.e. freight. The flagman was lighting 
his pipe and listening to some story of the fireman’s, 


PROMOTED TO THE LEFT SIDE 


95 


so that he didn’t notice what the engineer said about 
our train ; so when he saw a second-class train com- 
ing, he flagged, and as we were coming at a good 
gait, he flagged furiously. 

Pop, seeing the headlight, supposed of course they 
were crossed over (as they had a perfect right to be), 
and fearing he couldn’t stop in the distance he had, 
horsed her over, and we jumped. 

The station agent had been buying manure from 
the farmers all winter and stacking it in a huge pile 
alongside the track. 

As it was offensive to the public, he had orders 
from the superintendent to get rid of it as fast as 
possible. So as it was late in the spring when we 
made our eventful jump, the pile was about half 
gone, and as there had been a good deal of rain for 
a week past, the immediate vicinity of it was a wet, 
soggy, malodorous locality, thoroughly fermented with 
the distillation from the heap, covered with its leav- 
ings and numerous dark brown puddles. Into this I 
went, and Pop after me. I landed on my feet, but 
immediately pitched over and ploughed into it. I 
don’t know how Pop landed, but when the conductor 
asked him afterwards if he fell, he said he fell seven 
times. 

At any rate, we ploughed and rolled, wallowed 
and spluttered, in our fragrant bath to more than our 
hearts’ content, — much more, — until our momentum 
having expended itself, we crawled dripping, half 
blinded and strangled, up the bank, to find our train 


96 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


stopped and no harm done except to ourselves and 
our feelings. 

Perhaps that flagman didn’t get a blessing ! Pop 
wanted to go back and kill him after he heard the 
engineer’s explanation. 

Fortunately it was a water station, so we took turns 
letting the water run on each other (nobody else 
would come near us) until we had cleansed ourselves 
as well as we could, and then got on the engine and 
went on. But for a long time it was a standing joke 
of Pop’s to ask me not to come any nearer than was 
necessary please, and I would reply, “ For the Lord’s 
sake, do you expect anybody to get any nearer to you 
than they are obliged to? Phew! why don’t you 
mortgage your farm and buy a carload of ‘Florida 
water ’ ? ” 

Having served a good spell on freight, I was be- 
ginning to hanker for promotion to the left side of a 
passenger train. Then indeed I could feel that I had 
a good job. Every day I should know just what my 
duties were, and though the engineer might not be 
as genial and companionable as Pop, I was willing to 
risk the change. They were paid by the mile, and 
they could see us fellows lying in the side track with 
our old freight trains, losing time, while they went 
wheeling by us, forty and fifty miles an hour. They 
could go over the division and pass us again some- 
times on the same trip. They of course earned much 
more money, and did it much more easily. I should 
then come into immediate contact with the oldest 


PROMOTED TO THE LEFT SIDE 


97 


and most experienced firemen on the road, and 
should begin to move in circles where promotion 
was discussed as a matter of immediate personal 
interest. 

About this time, an engineer who had left the road 
a couple of years before returned, and was appointed 
travelling engineer by the master mechanic. We soon 
found that he had full authority to hire engineers to 
fill vacancies, and that he improved his opportunities. 
A new branch connecting with an important mining 
and manufacturing locality was opened, calling for 
half a dozen more engineers. The firemen had been 
longing for the opening, and figuring for the past 
three years, on who would be promoted; but when the 
time drew near, it was observed that several new en- 
gineers were riding on the engines, learning the road. 
The firemen became alarmed at once, and discussed 
the matter quite freely. The engineers took a hand 
in, and notified us that if we cared to keep our jobs, 
we had better attend to our own business and let the 
officers run the road to suit themselves. As they had 
the ear of their former comrade, the travelling engi- 
neer, this may have accounted for their enthusiasm in 
upholding the management. 

I became intensely interested in the controversy ; 
and though I could not expect to be promoted at this 
time, yet I saw that if the engineers were all to be 
hired, our chances of ever running on that road were 
slim indeed. As no one seemed to have any idea of 
demanding better treatment from the company, or to 

H 


98 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


consider that we had anything that could be termed 
rights in the matter, I made it my business to preach 
a new doctrine to my companions, and after much 
patient argument, succeeded in convincing many of 
them that we were not by any means subsisting on 
the company’s charity. I said that we were as nec- 
essary to the operation of the road as the locomotives 
themselves, and when some one would jeeringly ask 
if I thought the road would stop in case I quit, I told 
him it was not the individual who was necessary, that 
I realized any one’s services could be dispensed with 
from the president down, but the vacancies must be 
filled by some one, hence I claimed that what was 
essential to the operation of the road in the instance 
under discussion was firemen , some firemen — if not us, 
then others ; therefore, being necessary to the opera- 
tion of the road, it was not unreasonable in us to 
claim some consideration at the hands of the manage- 
ment, and to endeavor to establish certain rights for 
ourselves. Here, again, the engineers laughed at us. 
They said they could run the engines with shoeblacks, 
or farmers, as firemen ; but I told them that didn’t 
invalidate my argument, as all I contended was, that 
they must have firemen. 

I succeeded in making myself very unpopular with 
the engineers ; but as I had infused new life and hope 
into the firemen, I didn’t care much about that. I 
finally got three of the oldest men, three who had 
felt sure of promotion, to go with me as a committee 
to the travelling engineer and ask that the firemen’s 




“ We found the gentleman sitting with his feet cocked up 
on his desk, smoking.” — p. 99. 


PROMOTED TO THE LEFT SIDE 99 

rights to promotion be recognized, provided I would 
agree to do all the talking, which I was perfectly will- 
ing to do, as I thought I could advance such a con- 
vincing argument that he would be obliged to fall 
into our view of the matter. 

So one fine day I marshalled my committee in the 
anteroom of the master mechanic’s office, resolved to 
beard the lion in his den. We were all trembling in 
our shoes, at the audacity of our action, and wished 
that we hadn’t been so valiant; however, it was too late 
now to turn back, as all the firemen knew what we were 
about, and a number were waiting in the round-house 
to receive our report. So in we went, our caps in our 
hands, and asked to see Mr. Hussey. A clerk stepped 
into his office, and returning directly, bade us enter. 

We found the gentleman sitting with his feet 
cocked up on his desk, smoking ; we walked round 
so as to face him, and I asked, in a voice which I fear 
was slightly tremulous, if we could speak to him. He 
gave me a quick, disagreeable glance from his cold, 
gray eye, and answered in a most discouraging 
manner, “ Ya — as, go on.” 

After once having broken the ice, I found but 
little difficulty in talking. I stated the case to him, 
as I had done to the boys dozens of times already. 
I told him that we based our claim to recognition, on 
the ground that firemen were a necessary adjunct to 
a railroad ; therefore we felt that as we had performed 
our duties satisfactorily, which I claimed was proven 
by our retention in the service, we believed we were 


100 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


entitled to some slight consideration, that we didn’t 
wish to fire all our lives, and believed we were just 
as capable of becoming engineers as any one else had 
ever been, and, in short, I asked him bluntly to fill 
the vacancies which would soon occur, by promoting 
firemen instead of hiring engineers. 

When I got through he gave me another one of 
those wicked leers, and said, “ Are you done ? ” 

“ Yes, sir,” said I. 

“ Got no instructions for the master mechanic or 
superintendent ? ” 

“ No, sir ; we’ve got no instructions for anybody ; 
we are simply asking for what we think we are 
entitled to.” 

“ Oho ! you’re mighty mild all of a sudden ! Well, 
now look here, my young agitator, I’ve had my eye 
on you for some time, and I’ve heard a good deal 
about you, too ; going round among the firemen, 
talking and criticising my business. You want what 
you’re entitled to, hey ? Well, you shall have it, and 
that’s a bill of your time. Does any of the rest of 
you want what he’s entitled to ? ” 

Glancing hastily at the boys, I saw they were 
badly rattled ; so, thinking it useless to sacrifice any 
more of them, I told him that I was the only one to 
blame for the action we had taken, and got them out 
of the office as quickly as I could. 

We were no sooner outside than two of my gallant 
supporters sneaked off to the round-house, thankful 
to have escaped with their lives ; but one, Frank 


PROMOTED TO THE LEFT SIDE 


IOI 


Manly, a smart, bright young fellow of about twenty- 
one, slightly red-headed, tall, and straight as an arrow, 
Manly by name, and manly by nature, brought his 
right fist down in his left palm with a bang, and 
swore that it was an infernal shame. “ I’ll tell you 
what I’ll do, Joe,” said he; “I’ll go back in that 
office, and yank that d — d hound out from behind 
his desk, and mop up the floor with him ; d — n 
him ! I always hated him, and would like no better 
fun than to give him an almighty good licking, an’ I 
can do it, too.” 

He turned to go in again, but I caught him by the 
arm, and told him not to be a fool ; for while I had 
no doubt that he could lick Hussey, he would not 
only lose his job, but probably get himself locked up 
besides. 

“Ah! who cares for their old job? D’ye think I 
want to stay down in that black hole, an’ ladle lamp- 
black into these ole man-eaters all my life, so’s he 
can hire all his drunken friends, that can’t run any- 
where else? No, sir, I wouldn’t fire another scoop- 
ful of coal on this road, if I had to go hod-carrying 
for a living ! ” 

While he was ranting in this manner, I had gradu- 
ally drawn him away from the office door, and we 
strolled up the street, discussing the matter loudly 
and angrily; for we were both well riled. Finally 
Frank asked me what I intended to do. 

“ What can I do, but hunt another job ? I’m dis- 
charged here.” 


102 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


He walked along in silence for several minutes, 
thinking deeply, then, looking up, he said, — 

“ Don’t you do it ; he had no right to discharge 
you for that. I’ll tell you what we’ll do ; it wouldn’t 
do any good to go to the master mechanic, because 
he’d uphold Hussey; and the super’s no better. I 
won’t fire on the blame road any more, as long as 
that’s to be the rule ; so let’s you and me go straight 
to the general manager. They say he’s a mighty 
fine old fellow ; been all through the mill himself, an’ 
believes in giving the boys a fair show. We’ve got 
nothing to lose, anyway, so he can’t hurt us. What 
do you say ? ” 

I told him I was willing; so the next day we 
marched into the general manager’s office, as large 
as life, and at once ran foul of his very inquisitive pri- 
vate secretary, who wouldn’t admit us until he found 
out just what our business was. I didn’t think it 
advisable to tell him, but Frank said it was no secret, 
and blurted it all out. Then he wanted to know 
why we bothered the general manager with such 
matters, why didn’t we go to the master mechanic or 
the superintendent, and so on, until Frank, losing 
his temper, told him we didn’t want to see anybody, 
but would settle the matter elsewhere, and off we 
started. At this the fussy little old fellow changed 
his tactics, called us back, advised us not to get 
excited, and said he would find out if the gentleman 
would see us. 

He presently returned from the inner sanctum 


PROMOTED TO THE LEFT SIDE 


103 

and told us to be seated, that the general manager 
was very busy, but would see us directly. 

In about half an hour a man came out, and we 
were told to step inside. Neither of us had ever 
seen the general manager before, so we were pleas- 
antly surprised to find that august person a very 
mild-mannered and affable gentleman. He welcomed 
us cordially, asked us to be seated, and read from a 
slip of paper, “Two of the firemen.” 

“It should be ex-firemen, sir,” said I, “we are no 
longer employed on your road.” 

He raised his eyebrows slightly and said, “ In that 
case I hardly see how you can have any business 
with me. It was on the supposition that you were 
employees that I granted you this audience.” 

I asked if he would allow us to state our case. 

“ Certainly,” said he. “ Proceed ; but be as brief 
as you can, for my time is valuable.” 

I told him the whole story : how we had been dis- 
appointed in our promotion, how we had respectfully 
protested to Mr. Hussey, and I, as spokesman, had 
been peremptorily discharged. He seemed inter- 
ested, and heard me through without interruption, 
and when I had finished, he asked : “ Who is 
Mr. Hussey?” I told him. 

“And he discharged you both ?” 

“No, sir,” said Frank. “I wasn’t discharged; but 
as I don’t intend to fire all my life, I have quit.” 

“And quite right too. If I knew that I had a 
man on my road that hadn’t ambition enough to 


104 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

aspire to the highest position on it, I’d discharge 
him myself. Now you boys understand that you 
have made a grave charge to me against your supe- 
rior officer. If I bring him here, will you repeat the 
charges in his presence?” 

“Yes, sir, we will.” 

“ Have you any witnesses ? ” 

“We have the other two firemen who were on 
the committee; but perhaps they wouldn’t care to 
testify.” 

“ What are their names ? ” 

We told him their names, and he took them down. 
He then told us to be in his office again at ten o’clock 
next morning. Frank asked if we should notify our 
witnesses to appear. “They will be notified,” said 
he, “and will be here, or I am very much mistaken.” 
I remarked that one of them was to go out at 
4 p.m. “Ah!” said he, “that’s well thought of.” 
He then told his clerk to tell the master mechanic’s 
office to relieve fireman Voorhees until further orders: 
and dismissed us, with a warning to talk to no one 
about the matter. 

When we got outside, Frank almost danced for 
joy. “ I tell you, Joe,” said he, “we’ve got that pug- 
nosed Hussey just where we want him. I’ll bet you 
that if it ever comes his turn to entertain a firemen’s 
committee again, he’ll know how to receive ’em a 
blame sight better than he did last time. Bully for 
the old man ! he’s a brick ! I hope he’ll discharge 
Mr. Great-I-am Hussey. It would serve him glad ; 
he’d know how it feels himself, then.” 


PROMOTED TO THE LEFT SIDE 105 

Back we went to the boarding-house, and kept out 
of sight as much as possible ; but we were unable to 
escape some questioning, though when asked what 
we were going to do now, we answered that we had 
not yet made up our minds. 

The next day we arrived at the office on time, 
where we found Mr. Hussey, who paid not the slight- 
est attention to us and our two committeemen, who 
were in what Frank called a “blue funk,” wondering 
what was to be done to them. The general manager 
arrived shortly after us, bowed comprehensively to 
the crowd, said, “ Good-morning, gentlemen ; step 
inside, please,” and when we were all in, asked us to 
be seated. 

“ Now,” said he, “ which is Mr. Hussey ? ” 

“I am Mr. Hussey,” said that gentleman, disguis- 
ing as much as possible his naturally surly manner, 
out of deference to his superior officer. 

“ I have received a very grave charge, Mr. Hussey, 
from one, or perhaps I should say two, of our fire- 
men, one of whom you have discharged, as I under- 
stand, for having preferred a request on behalf of 
himself and others. Is that correct ? ” 

“I discharged that feller,” said Hussey, indicating 
me by a jerk of his head, “because he’s an agitator : 
he’s been organizin’ the firemen, an’ tryin’ ter make 
trouble on the road. I should have discharged him 
at the first chance, anyway ; so, when he came into 
my office an’ tried to dictate to me who I should 
hire an’ who I should promote, I let ’im go. I don’t 


10 6 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

want no firemen, nor engineers neither, dictatin’ to 
me, an’ I won’t have it ! ” 

“Be seated a moment, please,” said the general 
manager. 

He then called the members of the committee up, 
one after another, and, after warning them to be 
careful to state the exact facts, drew from them 
the conversation that had passed between Hussey 
and me in the office. He asked Hussey if it was 
correct, and he admitted that it was. He then said 
that it was his wish that all employees on the road 
should be considered as standing in the line of pro- 
motion in their several departments; that he had 
always supposed such to be the case, and was sur- 
prised to find it otherwise, as he had certainly made 
his views known on that subject. He said that pro- 
motions should be governed by seniority of service, 
unless the senior employee could be shown to be 
unfit for the position ; favoritism he would not toler- 
ate under any disguise whatsoever. He gave Mr. 
Hussey a very plain lecture on the autocratic posi- 
tion which he had assumed toward us, saying that he 
desired all employees to discuss among themselves 
matters pertaining to their own interests, and to 
suggest such changes as they thought would be 
beneficial to themselves, guaranteeing that all such 
questions should receive his personal attention, and 
any concessions that could be made without injury 
to the interests of the road he would gladly make. 
He told us that any employee could always obtain 


PROMOTED TO THE LEFT SIDE 


107 


an audience with him, and said that the right of 
appeal from the decisions of inferior officers should 
be the rule while he remained in the company’s 
employ. 

He then told Frank and me to return to work, and 
was about to dismiss us, when Hussey, who had been 
getting red in the face and showing signs of increas- 
ing uneasiness, rose, and said in a somewhat insolent 
tone, — 

“ Do you mean to say, Mr. General Manager, that 
that feller’s reinstated over my head ? ” 

“You can call it that, if you choose.” 

“ Well, I’ll tell you one thing : I don’t care if 
you’re general manager, or what you are, you can’t 
run no railroad that way — ” 

“ There ! there ! ” said the old gentleman, knock- 
ing on his desk with a pencil, “ that will do. I think 
I understand you, and let me give you a little piece 
of advice, — when talking to a gentleman, be as 
gentlemanly as you can, and when addressing your 
superior officer, try and remember that a certain 
modicum of respect is due to his position — ” 
“Gentleman be d — d!” roared Hussey. “What 
are ye? Ye’re nothin’ but an old ex-freight brake- 
man, an’ ye’re so d — d old that whatever little sense 
ye might have had once is all gone now. To blazes 
with you an’ yer ole streak of rust ! I wouldn’t work 
on a road that’s got such an old woman fool for a 
general manager, if it was the only road on earth ! ” 
And he started for the door just as it was opened by 


io8 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


a burly attendant, who quietly, but firmly, and with 
an air of dexterity which proved familiarity with the 
method, took Mr. Hussey by the wrist and elbow 
and escorted him, swearing uproariously, to the 
outer world. 

We bade the general manager good day, thanking 
him for his kindness, and withdrew. Frank and I 
kept a little in advance of the others on our return, 
though they tried to fraternize ; but we looked upon 
them coldly, and so discouraged their advances. 


CHAPTER IX 


setting hussey’s packing out — the new super 

BE CAREFUL BUT MAKE TIME THE PRICE OF 

LIBERTY FIRING FOR SIMPSON HELL-FIRE JACK 

AND SECOND FOUR — COLLISION — THE FARMER, 
THE COW, AND THE FLIP-FLAP — A RUN-AWAY 
ENGINE 

The results of our interview were very satisfactory. 
We got rid of Hussey, who spent a month in a 
drunken celebration of his discharge ; pouring out 
dire threats of vengeance against Frank and me, 
until Frank ran across him one evening and “set his 
packing out ” so satisfactorily that he left town that 
same night on a through freight, rather than exhibit 
his damaged countenance to the intensely unsympa- 
thetic gaze of the railroaders ; for now that he was 
shorn of power to either punish or reward, his fine- 
weather friends fell away, and he found himself de- 
cidedly unpopular, so that none sympathized with 
the fond delusion which he entertained for some time 
of being sent for and reinstated. 

The magnitude of our success dazed and almost 
frightened us. Our visit to the general manager had 
been undertaken merely as a forlorn hope, and with 
hardly any expectation of being granted even an 
109 


no 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


interview. We were lionized by the firemen, and 
looked upon with sincere dislike by the engineers; 
as it was for their interest to have all railroads hire 
engineers. Even old Pop told me, with the utmost 
gravity, that I might as well quit, and go along with 
Hussey ; for he said the master mechanic would now 
be down on me for having been instrumental in get- 
ting Hussey discharged, and interfering with the 
management of his department. He predicted that 
my stay on the road would be very limited, but I 
remembered what the general manager had said to 
us about the right of appeal, and made up my mind 
that if the master mechanic did me an injustice, I 
would fight it out as I had in the last instance. 

I had occasion several times to remember Pop’s 
words ; for though I was not discharged, a system of 
petty annoyances was started against me in the effort 
to tire me out, so that I would leave of my own 
accord. It became a frequent occurrence now for 
me to be called to the office, to receive reprimands 
and warnings for all sorts of unimportant matters ; 
and as I knew the method pursued on railroads, I 
understood the meaning of these actions on the 
master mechanic’s part. 

A strict record is kept of the service of every 
employee. A report is filed with the head of the de- 
partment of all violations of the rules, and the pun- 
ishments awarded for the same ; so that when at any 
time a serious offence is committed, the superintend- 
ent can call for the man’s record, and base his deci- 


CHASING A RUN-AWAY 


III 


sion to a great extent upon it, and as it is a practical 
impossibility to obey all orders, and at the same time 
perform one’s duty, a prejudiced official can ruin the 
record of any man. For instance, we got a new 
superintendent, and like the proverbial new broom, 
he swept exceedingly clean. He was not a practical 
railroader, but had been all his life a clerk ; however, 
he succeeded in gaining the good will of the general 
superintendent who recommended his appointment 
when a vacancy occurred, and the general manager 
sanctioned it. The new super lived a dozen miles or 
so out on the road, where there was a station located 
down in a hole with sharp curves entering it from 
both directions. There had been several little wrecks 
there, caused by trains coming down into the station 
and hitting others pulling out of the siding, and of 
course the excuse always was that worm-eaten chest- 
nut “ brakes didn’t hold,” though every one knew that 
if they came in there under control as they should, 
they would be able to stop on getting the flag. 

The new super published an entirely unnecessary 
order to the effect that all second-class trains (freight) 
should come into this place prepared to stop before 
reaching the switch. One evening while sitting on 
his piazza he saw a stock train go down there at what 
he thought was a dangerous rate of speed. The next 
day he had the engineer in his office and cautioned him. 

The engineer said to him : “ I had hauled that train 
over a hundred miles before you saw it, and knew 
just what I could do with it. At the rate I was 


1 12 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


going I would have had no difficulty whatever, in 
stopping clear of the switch. You want these stock 
trains to go over the division in six hours, when you 
know we have got to violate the twenty mile per 
hour rule to do it, and squeeze out every half minute 
possible on all such cautionary orders as this ; to 
say nothing of running by slow flags and through 
yard limits, at a speed that will down us if anything 
ever goes wrong at any of those places. Yet if we 
don’t make the time you want with these trains, you 
will take us off, and give them to somebody else. 
Now what is a man to do ? ” 

He got no direct answer ; it isn't policy for a rail- 
road official to answer embarrassing questions of that 
sort. The superintendent contented himself with 
warning the engineer to “ be careful, very careful ; 
I wouldn’t allow you to go out on the head of a 
train if I didn’t know that you are a good careful 
man, but of course I want you to make time.” 

The engineer then complained that in five years’ 
running on the road he had never before been called 
to the office, and had taken great pride in keeping 
his record clear. 

“ Yes, I know,” said this Daniel come to judgment ; 
“ I looked up your record and found that up to the 
present it was clear.” 

Having got rid of Hussey before he had succeeded 
in filling all of the vacancies with hired men, a couple 
of the old firemen were promoted ; and their places 
on passenger trains filled by promoting firemen from 


CHASING A RUN-AWAY 


113 

the freight department. Although there were three 
older men than I on freight, one of those promoted 
was younger, so I went to the two men older than my- 
self and reminded them of what the general manager 
had promised us, asking them if they didn’t intend 
to kick for their promotion. At first they said, “ Ah, 
what’s the use ? The engineer asked for that man ; and 
if we make a fuss, we might get the place, but both 
the master mechanic and the engineer would be 
down on us, and it would not do us any good.” 

I reminded them that eternal vigilance was the 
price of liberty, asked them what they were firing for, 
and told them they were fools to allow their rights 
to be taken from them without a protest. Finally 
they said that if I would go with them, they would 
request the master mechanic to do the right thing. 

“ No, sir,” said I ; “ I’ll head no more committees 
for you fellows ; but if you are not going to demand 
your rights, I am mine. I’ll not permit a man to be 
promoted over my head if I can help it.” 

I marched directly to the master mechanic’s office. 
He was in, and looking up, as I fancied, rather suspi- 
ciously — or shall I say guiltily ? — demanded to know 
my business. I told him that I understood that it 
was the policy of the road to promote men according 
to their seniority, and as a younger than I had been 
promoted, I had come in to see him about it. 

“ Who is it ? ” said he. 

“Peterson, sir.” 

“ Is Peterson a younger man than you ? ” 


1 


1 14 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

“Yes, sir.” 

He called for a book, which he looked over, and 
then said, “ Yes, he is; but Whitworth and Collins are 
both your seniors, so I don’t see as you are entitled 
to anything.” 

I told him they were the only two ahead of me ; 
but that if he put Peterson ahead, that made three ; 
that I had fired over two years, and didn’t see why 
I should forfeit promotion in favor of another. He 
closed the book with a bang, asked me if I wanted 
that train, and when I said I did, he answered, “ All 
right, sir; you can have it.” 

“ Shall I take her next trip, sir ? ” 

“Yes; or you can pay your fare to , and fire 

her back to-night, if you like,” savagely. 

I thanked him as humbly as I could and went out, 
my heart somewhat misgiving me. Whitworth and 
Collins asked me how I made out. 

“ I got the train,” said I. 

“ Bully for you ! ” said Whitworth. 

“ You won’t keep it a week,” said Collins. 

“ Well, I’ve got it, anyway, and I’ll keep it as long 
as I can, and I won’t be put off it for nothing, either,” 
said I, my courage returning now that I was clear of 
the office. 

The next day I came down to the round-house 
bright and early, so as to be sure and have my engine 
ready on time and in good shape, for I knew I would 
not be apt to get a very cordial reception from the 
engineer, and I didn’t want to give him cause for 


CHASING A RUN-AWAY 


115 

complaint. I had her shining like a glass bottle full 
of pitch when he came along. He was a surly, 
important fellow, very unpopular with the firemen, 
as he was one of those who believed that a locomo- 
tive engineer was little, if any, lower than the gods, 
and firemen were especially created to be their ser- 
vants. When he climbed aboard and saw me busily 
at work, he stopped short, and said, — 

“ What are you doin’ on this engine ? ” 

“Getting her ready to go out.” 

“What’s the matter with Billy ? ” 

“Nothing as I know of. This train don’t belong 
to him, so he’s been put back on freight.” 

“Oho ! so you’ve worked him out of his job, hey?” 

“No, I have got him out of my job, that’s all.” 

“ Your job, hey ? You can’t fire this train.” 

“ How do you know ? ” 

“Because you never fired a passenger train, an’ 
this is an almighty hard train. I got Billy Peterson 
put on here because I wanted him, an’ now you’ve 
got his job away from him ; by G — d, things are 
coming to a fine pass when firemen run the road. 
I’ll tell you one thing, my young buck : you’ve bit off 
more ’n you can chew this time ; if I don’t give you a 
belly-full before you see this round-house again, you 
can call me a quaker ! ” 

He was a big two hundred and forty pounder, but 
from his mean, overbearing way, I had long ago 
judged him to be a coward. I knew that he disliked 
me especially for the action I had taken in going to 


II 6 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

the general manager, and I knew, too, that if I let 
him once begin to bully me, I would have a dog’s 
life as long as I staid with him, so I determined to 
have it out right then and there. 

“ See here, Mr. Simpson,” said I ; “ I don’t know 
of any firemen that are running the road, but I do 
know that no engineers are running it. The day 
when firemen had no rights on this road is past, and 
you may as well admit that fact. This train belongs 
to me. I can fire it as well as anybody ; and if you 
work against me to knock me out, I’ll beat you at 
your own game and get you discharged.” 

He sat and stared at me, with his mouth open in 
amazement, while I uttered this pure bluff, then re- 
gaining his senses, he jumped down off the engine in 
a rage, saying, “ Well, d — n you, anyhow ; I won’t 
take you if I have to go out alone.” And off he went 
to the office, but came back again directly, and with- 
out a word pulled out for the train-shed. After we 
got coupled on, and while waiting for the conductor’s 
signal, he turned to me and said, “ You’ve forced 
yourself on here where you’re not wanted, and now 
mind what I tell you : you’ll keep this engine hot, or 
I’ll do a little reporting to the general manager 
myself ; then we’ll see who’ll get discharged.” 

“All right,” said I. “I can keep her hot if you 
run her right ; and now let me tell you something : 
I’m entitled to this job, and I’m going to have it, in 
spite of you ; and if I lose it for any reason, whether 
it’s my fault or not, I’ll make no reports to anybody, 



'* ‘You’ve forced yourself on here where you’re not 

— p. 116. 


wanted.’ ” 




































' 







CHASING A RUN-AWAY 


ii 7 


but I’ll lick you every day for a year, as big as you 
are. And if you have any doubts about my ability to 
do it, jump right down here on the ground, and I’ll 
give you the first dose before leaving-time.” 

I heard the conductor call out “ All aboard ! ” saw 
Simpson look back, and as he jerked the throttle 
wide open, I rang the bell with one hand, and opened 
the fire door with the other, keeping it open until he 
got through slipping her. 

Not another word passed between us during the 
trip. I kept her good and hot. He ran her correctly, 
and on the return run he told me he didn’t blame me 
any for the stand I had taken, as a man would be a 
fool not to get what belonged to him on a railroad, 
if he could. 

I fired for him nearly two years ; and though I 
could never quite forget the attitude he had assumed 
toward me at first, we became eventually quite good 
friends. He understood his business thoroughly, 
and could make time easily with a train that would 
have kept some of the old runners on the anxious 
seat. He would insist on having his engine kept in 
first-class repair, even though he had to have a stand- 
up row with the master mechanic to get the work 
done, all of which made my work much easier. The 
natural consequence was that we made a name for 
fast runs, and were frequently sent out with specials. 
I paid particular attention to his method of handling 
her, and thereby gained a thorough knowledge of the 
most successful manner of handling trains and en- 


1 1 8 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

gines — a knowledge which was afterwards of inesti- 
mable value to me. 

I have mentioned the fact that railroad superin- 
tendents wink at violation of rules sometimes, if 
thereby good runs are made, a7id no harm comes from 
it. There was a fast express from the east which 
seldom arrived on time during the winter, being 
delayed by snow. As it was an early morning train 
into Chicago, and of a somewhat local nature on our 
division, business men were continually complaining 
of the delay and inconvenience caused them by its 
being late ; so one winter, in order to satisfy them, a 
first section was run over the division, hauled by the 
regular engine, to do the local work, and we were 
stationed with our engine at the other end of the 
division, to take the regular train when it came 
along, and run it as a second section, making no 
stops unless there were passengers to get off, which 
seldom occurred. It was an open secret that this 
job was given to Simpson on account of his record 
breaking proclivities, and the superintendent would 
usually meet us on the station platform, and con- 
gratulate him on his lightning run ; for we would 
frequently make up an hour and a half, following the 
first section right in. Now, of course, the superin- 
tendent knew that in order to make such flying trips 
as that, it was necessary to disregard yard-limit rules 
and slow-downs ; but he was so pleased with the 
record the road was making in delivering its eastern 
train on time, that he said never a word. 


CHASING A RUN-AWAY 


119 

Some eighty miles out from Chicago there was a 
small city, where we had a large freight-yard nearly 
three miles long. The yard-limit rule required all 
engines to reduce speed to six miles an hour, when 
running within the limits of any railroad yard — a rule 
that was never respected by any one, nor enforced ; 
it was merely a hole for the company to crawl out 
of in case of a collision in the yard. No train could 
make time if the engineer observed that rule, for 
there were miles and miles of yards on the division. 
It is also a rigid rule that the main track must not 
be used between sections of a first-class train, for the 
sections are all regarded as one train, consequently 
the train has not passed until the last section has 
gone. Now, while this rule is sometimes violated, 
and nobody the wiser, “Hell-fire Jack and second 
four ” were so well known by all employees, that no- 
body would take chances, as a rule , of getting between 
her and her first section for a minute ; but on a cer- 
tain unfortunate morning a freight crew were doing 
some switching in the yard I speak of, and before 
they went to work the conductor had learned from the 
operator that “second four" was an hour and fifteen 
minutes late ; so as it was reasonable to suppose that 
she would be at least half an hour late at the yard, 
he instructed his flagman to hold her, unless he was 
called in before she arrived. This would give him 
a chance to use that track for a few minutes if he 
needed it, as he knew that even if the miraculous 
happened, and second four made up more time than 


120 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


it was in human power to do, he would be pro- 
tected until he could get off her track, close the 
switch, and call his flag. In fact, he did the unpar- 
donable in railroading, — he “ took chances.” 

It so happened that after “ first four ” passed, he had 
occasion to cross to the other side of the yard ; so 
he told his engineer of the precautions he had taken, 
and asked him to cross over. The engineer declined, 
saying he knew better than to cross over between 
sections of a first-class train. They argued the ques- 
tion awhile, and finally the conductor persuaded him 
that he would be foolish to lay there half an hour 
or more waiting for her, when it was only a minute’s 
work to slip across, — and they were protected any- 
how. At last, being over-persuaded, the engineer 
said, “All right; get your switches open, and I’ll 
cross over.” During this conversation more minutes 
than they thought had gone by. Everything having 
been favorable, we had made a most extraordinary 
run ; and the flagman, knowing that his conductor 
would not dare hold a first-class train, had not gone 
out very far, and was listening for the whistle signal 
which should tell him to let second four come, when 
we came wheeling round the curve sixty-five miles 
an hour. 

He frantically waved his red flag as we flew by. 
Jack shut off, reversed, applied the air-brake and 
blew a blast on his whistle that made that freight 
crew’s hair stand on end. Their engine was squarely 
out on the track ahead of us, backing over. The 


CHASING A RUN-AWAY 


121 


engineer pulled his throttle wide open in the effort 
to get across, but he hadn’t time. We hit her right 
on the back drive ; both engines rolled over on their 
sides, and both engineers and firemen were thrown 
out of their cabs and rolled around the yard. Luck- 
ily no one was seriously injured, though several pas- 
sengers were bruised and cut by flying glass, and 
the tracks were pretty well torn up. 

While Jack and I were busy getting the fire out 
of our engine the conductor went up to the tele- 
graph office and reported the wreck, and inside of an 
hour a new train was backed down on one of the 
yard tracks, our passengers and baggage transferred, 
and we went on. Next day all hands were called to 
the office, and from the mass of lies we told, the 
superintendent sifted the truth ; and the conductor, 
engineer, and flagman of the freight were discharged 
at once, and Jack was suspended. 

After he had loafed over thirty days, and heard 
nothing from the superintendent, he called on the 
gentleman, and asked what he was going to do with 
him. The superintendent blazed out wrathfully : 
“I don’t know what to do with you. If the law 
allowed me to, I’d hang you ; a man who would go 
through a yard as you did ought to be hung.” To 
which Jack replied in righteous indignation, “Well, 
I wish you’d do something with me. I can’t afford 
to lay round here all summer waiting for you to 
make up your mind.” 

“You needn’t lay round one minute. Do you un- 
derstand that ? Not one minute.” 


122 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


Jack wasn’t discharged ; he was too good a man 
to let go, but after he got back to work he said that 
if they wanted any more records broken they might 
get somebody else to do it ; he was going to run 
according to the rules. 

While on the passenger train I learned to wonder 
at the temerity with which people get in the way of 
trains and so get themselves killed ; and I noticed 
that it was almost a universal practice with people 
driving across the track, when they hear a train com- 
ing, and especially if the engineer whistles to them 
to get off the track, to yank on the lines instead of 
plying the whip — now I wonder why they do that. 

I remember one case of an old fellow driving 
across the track slowly, and leading a cow behind 
the wagon. We came on him rather suddenly round 
a curve, though he must have heard Jack blow for 
the crossing half a mile back. There he was, square 
on the track ; Jack whistled at him, and I rung the 
bell. With the rare presence of mind of his class, 
he commenced to saw viciously on the lines. His 
old crowbait of a horse shook his head in dumb pro- 
test, and settled back in the breeching. It was im- 
possible to check the train. The cow had proceeded 
far enough so that the point of the pilot passed under 
her belly, raising her a dozen feet in the air. She 
turned a half somersault, and fell on her back across 
the seat alongside of the farmer ; but her weight was 
more than the antediluvian vehicle could stand, so 
down it went, all of a heap, like the “ Wonderful One 


CHASING A RUN-AWAY 


123 


Hoss Shay,” the farmer himself turning some kind 
of a flip-flap out over the body of the cow. Looking 
back, I saw him get up and shake his fist at us, so I 
told Jack he was all right, and we went on ; but I be- 
lieve the company paid for both his cow and wagon. 

One evening, just as the conductor gave the signal, 
and we had started from the water-plug, the operator 
came flying out of his office, waving an order and 
shouting like mad. We were four minutes late, and 
as I shouted “whoa” to Jack, I could see that he was 
mad. But that same four minutes was our salvation ; 
for if we had got away from that station on time, we 
would have met with a very large surprise party a 
little later. The operator handed up an order to the 

effect that engine 96 had run away from and 

was coming east on the west-bound track. That 
was all, and enough, too ; we knew she was coming, 
heading for us, but how far away she was, or how 
fast she was coming, we didn’t know. It was a time 
to think and act quickly. Right behind us was an 
iron bridge eighty feet above the rocky bed of a 
mountain stream ; an eighth of a mile beyond the 
bridge was a cross-over switch. As there was no sid- 
ing on our track, our only way was to back over this. 
Although we were tolerably sure that there was 
nothing coming behind us on our track, still it is 
a grave violation of the rules to back up without 
first sending a flag back to protect you. There was 
nothing else for it, however, so Jack, shouting to the 
operator to hold everything east bound, as he was 


124 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

going to back over, commenced backing right away, 
telling me to notify the conductor and get back on 
the engine as quickly as possible. 

When I got back, he told me to watch out ahead, 
and if I saw her coming, to sing out, so as we could 
get off if she was coming like hell. It was an anxious 
moment ; the rear brakeman was giving the signal, 
and when we got near the switch it was necessary 
to slack up so he could get off, unlock, and open it. 
I don’t suppose that switch had been used much ; 
that was the only time I ever saw it used. And 
passenger brakemen are proverbially slow at such 
matters, for they hate to soil their white hands and 
good clothes. It seemed as if he would never get it 
over. Jack had to come to a full stop to keep from 
running over it, and I could hear him muttering 
curses on the unfortunate brakeman, who, I have 
no doubt, was doing his level best, and at last got 
the switch open ; then it appeared that the con- 
ductor had not had sufficient forethought to send 
another man to the other one, but the same fellow 
had to go and fumble with it, calling forth more 
anathemas from us. At last we got the welcome 
signal to back up, and he gave her a jerk back that 
made all the passengers bob their heads. The way 
we went over those cross-over switches was a flagrant 
violation of all railroad precedent, but we got across 
all right, and I jumped off and closed the head 
switch. 

“ Now, d — n her, let her come ! ” said Jack. 


CHASING A RUN-AWAY 


125 


It was getting dark. We got off and walked up 
to the station to find out as many particulars as we 
could. All the agent knew was that she had passed 
the first station, eight miles out, in less than seven 
minutes after it was discovered that she had gone off 
on her own hook. As she should have passed by 
some time ago at that rate of going, we judged that 
she had either slowed up or ditched herself, and Jack 
and I were arguing the advisability of asking permis- 
sion to cut our engine loose, and run down on the 
opposite track in search of her, when a chorus of 
“ Here she comes ! ” from the crowd of passengers 
and countrymen who had gathered at the station 
called our attention to the track. 

It was a strange and weird sight that met our 
gaze. The crowd stood silent and breathless as she 
passed. She had slowed down to about twenty miles 
per hour, and as she was hooked up to within one 
short notch of the centre, the steam had gone down, 
and her cylinder cocks were open, and there was no 
perceptible exhaust from the stack, but only a slight 
phit ! phit ! from the cylinder cocks as she silently 
loomed up in the dusk. Big, black, and indistinct 
she crept up to us, all hands drawing back as though 
she was something uncanny. Not a sound of whistle 
or bell heralded her approach ; not a glimmer of light 
showed her the way, but like an apparition she ap- 
peared to us for an instant, and was gone ; swallowed 
up in the night so quickly and silently, that we could 
hardly believe our own eyes. 


126 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


For an instant we stood like a lot of dummies, 
looking at the blackness where she had been; then 
Jack broke the spell by calling to the conductor to 
cut our engine off and open the switches, saying that 
as she was so nearly out of steam we could easily 
catch her and bring her back. So we crossed over 
and started after her, and this was a ticklish job. 
As we were backing, our headlight didn’t show, while 
she had no lights at all, and no man could tell where 
she might stop or leave the track, so it was a case of 
guess. If we ran too slow, we might chase her for 
miles, or again we might run into her unexpectedly 
at any moment, wrecking both tenders. 

A brakeman and myself stood on the rear of our 
tender, holding lanterns aloft, and watching with all 
our eyes, while the conductor rode in my side of the 
cab, unconsciously ringing the bell, as if to warn her 
not to get herself run down. Across the long bridge 
we went carefully, around the curve, and up a slight 
grade, and — there she stood, spent, her picnicking 
done. 

I jumped aboard, found that her fire, which had 
been banked ahead, was nearly out ; her steam was 
down to forty-five pounds, throttle barely open, and 
reverse lever within a notch of the centre, with no 
water in her lower gauge cock, although she stood 
head up the grade. There was no sign of a leak, 
however, so we coupled them together, and Jack 
gave her a jerk back and then stopped, whereupon 
she showed water in the lower gauge, so we knew 
she hadn’t run dry altogether. 


CHASING A RUN-AWAY 127 

We towed her back to the yard, I dumped what 
remained of her fire, and we went on. 

Now what do you suppose caused that engine to 
run away, endangering not only the first train she 
might meet (which was ours), but also the lives of all 
persons and animals that might have had occasion to 
cross the track while she was sneaking silently up 
the road ? 

A weak throttle latch-spring, which had been re- 
ported over and over again, and which would have 
cost to replace probably from three to four cents. 
Of course it was attended to at once after this most 
providential escape ? Not at all. I ran her a year 
afterwards with the same flimsy spring, and had a 
set of blocks to check her wheels, in order to prevent 
a recurrence of the adventure while she was in my 
charge. 

Why didn’t I report it? I did, daily, until I got 
tired of doing so. 

On the evening when she headed us, the hostler 
had cleaned her fire and backed her down into “ the 
hole ” ; he was in a hurry, — that was his normal condi- 
tion. He should have had two helpers, but didn’t 
have any, so he shut her off, pulled the lever up on 
the centre (approximately) and opened the cylinder 
cocks, thereby complying with the rules ; then he 
jumped off and went after another engine. The 
weak spring failed to latch the throttle shut, it 
worked open a little way, and being light, not yet 
coaled or watered, she crawled up out of “the hole” 


128 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


in spite of her open cylinder cocks, and started off 
down the yard. In cleaning the fire a spark had 
ignited the waste on top of the back driving-box. 
The blaze attracted the attention of my old friend 
Pop, who was oiling his engine, and talking with a 
couple of firemen as she passed. Thinking that the 
hostler was taking her out to the coal pockets, he 
shouted, “Hey! yer back drivin’-box is afire.” As 
no one answered, they all looked carefully at her and 
saw that she was alone. A shout went up, “ That 
engine’s runnin’ away ! ” The fireman of a near-by 
switch engine heard the cry, leaped to the ground 
and sprinted after her, visions of promotion no doubt 
flitting before his mind’s eye, and luring him to 
phenomenal bursts of speed. In the meantime old 
9 6, having passed all the switches, and got upon the 
main track, was gaining speed with every revolution 
of her big drivers. The fireman touched the back 
of her tank with the tips of his outstretched fingers, 
and then with a derisive wiggle of her drawhead she 
glided away. 

He was directly in front of the telegraph office 
when he realized that the race was lost, and his 
brief dream of speedy promotion over ; with a pres- 
ence of mind highly commendable, he rushed into 
the office, told the operator what had happened, and 
advised him to tell Wilson, eight miles away, to 
side-track her. Wilson got the message all right, 
and as he had some little distance to go to the 
switch, started on the run. As he opened the door, 


CHASING A RUN-AWAY 


129 


a meteor shot by, and glancing up the line, a faint 
glimpse of the back end of a tender with a big, yellow 
96 on it, disappearing round the curve in a cloud of 
dust told him she had gone. 

Two miles from where she started there was a 
turnout around a sink-hole. As the company had 
either to buy land enough from the farmer to build 
the turnout, or erect an expensive suspension bridge 
over the hole, he had shrewdly taken advantage of 
their necessity to charge such a gold-mine price, 
that they bought what would barely serve their pur- 
pose ; consequently each end of the turnout was such 
a dangerously sharp curve that a watchman was 
stationed there to show a slow-down signal, and re- 
port all engineers going over it at a faster speed 
than six miles an hour. As it was a hard pull across 
with freight trains, the engineers would slow down 
a bit until the engine took the entering curve and 
then pull out ; whereupon, “ Dinny ” would drop his 
green flag, and brandishing the red, bawl out with 
true Irish importance, “ I’ll repoort you for disris- 
pictin’ me red signal,” and the breeze would waft 
back the answer to his outraged dignity, “ Ah, go 
to ” 

On this afternoon Dinny saw “ some felly cornin’ 
like the divil batin’ tan-bark.” Firm in the resolu- 
tion to flag him, he jumped to the middle of the 
track with his red flag ; but before he could give it 
more than one desperate wave, he realized that the 
best place for him was in a little frog-pond behind 


K 


130 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


his shanty ; with one bound he was into it, and his 
threat to “repoort” was smothered in the thick 
green slime, as 96, most contemptuously “ disris- 
pictin’ ” the red, flew by. 

The fact that the 96 passed over it in safety was 
such a vivid object lesson to the superintendent that 
Dinny was removed from his important position 
where he could sass engineers, and returned to the 
section gang. 


CHAPTER X 


A CLAM CHOWDER — PROMOTION — THE TRAIN MAS- 
TER’S CONUNDRUMS — AT THE THROTTLE — WRECK- 
ING AN ENGINE — DISCHARGED — ANOTHER APPEAL 
REINSTATED 

\ 

The engineers had a clam chowder. It becomes 
absolutely necessary sometimes for men whose daily 
lives are passed under the strictest discipline, and 
in a calling where their nerves are ever at concert 
pitch, to unbend, relax the rigid tension, and do 
things which would appear silly under other circum- 
stances, or even vicious. There is a certain amount 
of the old Adam in everybody, which it is not whole- 
some to suppress entirely ; and as a railroad man’s 
private life is to a certain extent under the surveil- 
lance of his superiors, it does him good to get 
beyond their ken occasionally, and do just as he 
pleases, even to the extent perhaps of getting a little 
drunk, just for the devilment of it. 

I guess they had a pretty good time, though all 
that we outsiders could find out about it was that 
which was dropped in our hearing, when they re- 
viewed their escapades. 

To one poor fellow, however, it was a most serious 
event, as it finally cost him his life. He was climbing 

131 


132 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

a fruit tree, when one of the others, in the exuber- 
ance of his animal spirits, caught up an old piece of 
board and gave him a mighty slap with it on the 
part of his anatomy where his trousers fitted tight- 
est. With a yell of rage and pain the victim, amid 
the uproarious laughter of his comrades, dropped 
from the tree and chased his tormentor about the 
place, which, as they were both three-hundred-pound 
men, and the day was fearfully hot, proved a first- 
class diversion to the crowd. After evening the 
matter up with the fellow who hit him, somebody 
called his attention to the fact that his light trousers 
were stained with blood. An investigation showed 
that the piece of board contained a short, rusty nail 
which had penetrated the skin, but owing to the 
greater pain caused by the blow, it had not been 
noticed at the time. Nothing was thought of it, 
but after making one trip on his engine he laid off 
lame, and died of blood-poisoning inside of a week. 

We had been having very poor coal ; nearly all 
trains were losing some time, and the master me- 
chanic had firemen "on the carpet” daily, jacking 
them up for a week or ten days on account of their 
inability to make steam with material which, however 
suitable for roadbed ballast, was never intended by 
the Almighty for fuel. Owing to the expert skill 
of my engineer, I had not yet been put through that 
ordeal ; we had managed to crawl in on time every 
day, but it was all we could do, an extra car or a 
hard-hauling train would have surely dumped us. 


AT THE THROTTLE 


133 


It was about a week after the funeral of the unfor- 
tunate engineer, that we made our first break, and it 
was a bad one. I couldn’t keep her hot to save my 
soul. Jack favored her, and helped me all he could ; 
but it was no use, she would lag in spite of all I 
could do. I was ashamed, and mad clean through, 
for we dropped twenty minutes. 

Twenty minutes on the limited, and every minute 
of it for the want of steam ! I foresaw a very inter- 
esting interview with the master mechanic when I 
should get back ; my pride was hurt. I had been the 
only fireman so far who had not “ dropped his bun- 
dle,” and now I had done worse than any of them. 
I feared that I should be taken off the train alto- 
gether ; suspended I knew I should be, possibly for 
thirty days. So it was with a heavy heart that I 
fired the old engine back, for I knew that excuses, 
however valid, didn’t go with the “old man,” his 
invariable reply to all such being, “ That don’t make 
any difference.” I believe he would have said that 
if you had told him that the reason you didn’t make 
time was because you lost all the wheels off the 
engine, and the way he said it was extremely aggra- 
vating ; for he was boss, and it would do no good to 
talk back. 

When we got to the round-house, my heart sank 
as I saw the foreman approaching me, looking grave, 
as though he didn’t half like the errand he was on ; 
for I had always been rather a favorite with him, and 
an example to be held up to the other firemen. 


134 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

“The old man wants to see you in the office,” 
said he. 

“All right.” 

And now that my worst fears were confirmed I 
felt my courage return, and I resolved not to submit to 
any of his sneering remarks. He could jack me up — 
that was his privilege ; but if he made any disparaging 
comments, as he usually did in such cases, I vowed to 
myself that I’d talk United States to him if I lost my 
job by it ; so putting on as bold a front as I could, I 
stepped over to the office. 

He was standing with his back to me, looking out 
the window when I entered, but turned at once, and 
said, — 

“Well, sir?” 

I told him I had been ordered to report to him. 

“ Oh, yes,” said he ; “ freight is picking up now, 
and since Mr. Kimball’s death we are rather short 
handed ; do you think you can run an engine ? ” 

Heavens and earth, promotion! This was an agree- 
able surprise, with a vengeance. I knew the stereo- 
typed question, “Do you think you can run an 
engine ? ” I had heard so many of the boys tell 
of it as part of their experience when they were 
promoted, and I knew, too, the stereotyped answer : 
“I dunno, sir ; I never tried.” I had always promised 
myself that when it came my turn to answer the 
all-important question I wouldn’t say that anyhow ; so 
after catching my breath a bit, I answered as bold as 
brass, “Yes, sir.” 


AT THE THROTTLE 


135 


“Yes, I have no doubt that you can; I've had my 
eye on you ever since you came here, and with one 
or two exceptions your conduct has been very satis- 
factory.” 

He then proceeded to examine me on the locomo- 
tive : as to how it was constructed, and what I would 
do in various emergencies, the idea being to show 
how in case of a breakdown I would temporarily 
repair my engine, so as to get the train home with 
as little delay to the traffic of the road as possible; 
and although he suggested several mishaps, the like 
of which I had never heard discussed before, I kept 
my wits about me, and satisfied him that I was to 
be trusted. He gave me some advice concerning my 
deportment towards the employees in the other de- 
partments of the service, assured me that as long as 
I was right he would stand by me, — which I am 
afraid made me open my eyes rather widely, for 
nobody ever heard of him standing by his men, — 
and then handing me a note to the train master, told 
me to go and pass his examination and hurry back, 
“For,” said he, “I shall want you to go out to-night.” 

The train master tangled me up a little once or 
twice with his conundrums, and I feared I wasn’t mak- 
ing a very good showing in answer to the question, 
what I would do if, when running a first-class train on 
a single-track branch, I had orders to meet and pass 
another first-class train at the junction of the double- 
track main line, and on arriving there, found that she 
had not yet arrived. 


136 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

I answered that I would wait until she did. 

“ Suppose she was an hour late ? ” 

“That’s none of my business.” 

“ What ! would you hold those passengers there 
an hour with a double track ahead of you ? ” 

I wasn’t quite sure, but answered desperately, 
“ Certainly, if I had orders to wait there.” 

He brought down his fist with a bang on the table, 
and roared out, “ That’s right ; I want you always to 
remember that when an order is given to you, it’s 
good until fulfilled, and is to be obeyed. I’ll run 
the trains from here — that’s what I’m hired for; I 
won’t have conductors and engineers running trains. 

“ Now suppose you was running a first-class train, 
and you got a regardless order to run the opposite 
track to the next station, what would you do when 
you got there ? ” 

“ Cross back again and proceed on my rights.” 

“ What rights ? ” 

“My time-table rights.” 

“ Good agin ! By G — , some o’ those fellers would 
wait there twenty-four hours for an order to put ’em 
on the time table.” 

He kept this kind of thing up for a good hour, 
sometimes puzzling me considerably, but on the 
whole, I didn’t make any very bad breaks. At last 
looking at his watch, he said, “ H — 1 ! it’s dinner time. 
You can tell Mr. Seely that I’m satisfied.” 

At last ! I had reached the goal for which I had 
toiled so long, and so hard ; and when I went back, 


AT THE THROTTLE 


137 


reported to Mr. Seely, and got orders to take engine 
80 at 9 p.m., I was the proudest and happiest young 
fellow in the state. 

The position of locomotive engineer is a very 
peculiar one, calling for widely different qualities. 
He must be brave to recklessness when the occasion 
demands it, and yet extremely careful, both of the 
machine under his control, and as to the handling 
of his train ; for while he will be held strictly account- 
able for the slightest damage caused either by 
carelessness or ignorance on his part, there are cir- 
cumstances under which the company will justify 
him in wilfully wrecking the machine, to avoid 
greater damage. As his judgment must be formed 
instantly, and amid the most exciting surroundings, 
and afterwards put to the severe test of comparison 
with some other method which the master mechanic 
has thought out in the leisure of his cushioned office 
chair, it can be seen that rare attainments must be 
possessed by the man on “the head end ” if he would 
hold his job. Nor is this by any means all. He is 
expected to have and to exercise better judgment 
than the other employees ; and as they have no orders 
to submit to his will, friction arises, he is d — d for 
a crank, and when an accident occurs, conductors, 
brakemen, and switchmen all unite to swear the 
blame on the unfortunate engineer, who being in the 
minority, is lucky indeed if he escapes discharge. 

As their ranks are recruited mostly from the 
farmers’ boys along the line, with no special aptitude 


138 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


for the business, and who learn it by passing an 
apprenticeship similar to mine, and as the promoted 
men get at first the most difficult jobs for a beginner, 
switching in crowded yards, hauling wildcat freight, 
and doing all sorts of odd jobs, with the worst old 
worn-out scrap-heaps of engines in the company’s 
possession, what wonder that so many young run- 
ners, whose mishaps are all attributed to their incom- 
petency, are discharged, when if the same accident 
had happened to an experienced man, but little 
notice would have been taken, or at least his explana- 
tion would have carried some weight. 

Then, again, the very fact that he is known to be 
a young runner causes him to be the recipient of an 
immense amount of worthless advice from everybody, 
even his own fireman. If he is weak enough to act 
upon the advice of others, because he thinks they 
may know better than he does, and gets into trouble, 
he will find that no one has any sympathy for his 
case, least of all the super. “You had no business 
to do it, no matter who advised you to, if you didn’t 
think it was right,” he is told. 

If, on the other hand, he is stiff, and tells his 
would-be advisers that he is competent to judge for 
himself, he makes enemies, so that when the time 
comes that two heads would be better than one, he 
is told, “Do as you d — d please ; you know it all.” 

I will illustrate right here what I have said about 
an engineer being sustained in wilfully damaging his 
engine. It was the first winter after I was promoted ; 


AT THE THROTTLE 


139 


there had been a heavy fall of snow, and I was 
ordered to couple in ahead of a west-bound passenger 
train, to help the regular engine drag her through 
the big drifts. I had a brand-new engine right out 
of the shop. It is desired that a locomotive’s driving- 
wheel tires shall make if possible a hundred thousand 
miles before they are worn out. They become 
grooved by the wear on the rails, requiring to be 
turned off in the lathe twice, and occasionally three 
times. As this turning-off process is equivalent to 
many miles of legitimate wear, it is to be avoided as 
long as possible, and as there is always rivalry be- 
tween the division master mechanics, the engineer 
who reduces the life of a set of tires is not to be 
envied. The division superintendent had the snow- 
plough out, and as it was working on our track, we 
got an order to run on the east-bound track to the 
next station, regardless of all opposing trains, which 
means that the track is clear for us. The snow- 
plough crew had a flag out to protect themselves ; for 
although they knew the operator had orders not to 
let anything come, still you are always supposed to 
protect yourself. As I was on the head engine, I 
had all the looking out to do, the other fellow having 
his windows closed to keep out the snow, so that he 
could ride along warm and comfortable. 

I could hardly see anything myself, for the drifting- 
snow made it impossible to keep one’s eyes open 
with the head out, and if I closed my windows, they 
instantly became coated with it. I managed to see 


140 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

most of the whistling-posts, however, and if I had 
any doubts about having passed one, I blew the 
crossing signal anyway. I told the fireman to keep 
as good a lookout on his side as possible ; for, as the 
cab and boiler sheltered him, he could at least look 
out without closing his eyes. 

It seems that the flagman heard me blow for a 
road crossing, and as all the landmarks were oblit- 
erated by snow, he was unable to say on which track 
we were coming, so, to be on the safe side he flagged 
us anyway ; the snow not being so very deep here, 
we were coming at a pretty good gait, and when he 
saw that the engines continued to use steam, he 
realized that the blinding snow made his signal invis- 
ible to the engineer, and jumped to the other side of 
the track, waving his flag frantically, and yelling at 
the top of his voice. My fireman happening just 
then to glance ahead, saw his gymnastics, and judg- 
ing that collision must be imminent, yelled “Whoa!” 
and jumped off. 

As I could see nothing, I shut off, blew “ brakes ” 
to the other engineer, applied my own, and then as he 
had not heard me, and was still using steam, shoving 
me into I knew not what, I whistled to him again, 
reversed and gave her sand, he still shoving me 
ahead as hard as he could. 

My driver-brake being set, and engine reversed, the 
big wheels were held stationary as in a vise, while 
she skated, grating and grinding along on the sanded 
rails. I knew I was playing havoc with those new 


















































































































































:v« 



We found grooves nearly a quarter of an inch deep.” — p. 141. 




AT THE THROTTLE 


141 

tires ; but what could I do ? I expected every in- 
stant to have the end of a car come smashing into 
my cab. Again and again I blew the brake signal ; 
the grade was in our favor, so that my partner was 
able to keep them going in spite of me, and he 
shoved the whole business clear by the snow-plough. 
Her crew hearing my signals, and seeing my wheels 
locked, managed to attract his attention, and at last 
we got stopped. 

The superintendent climbed into my cab, and asked 
me if that fellow flagged me. I told him he did, and 
explained the whole affair. He understood, said, 
“ All right ; there’s no harm done. Go on.” But I 
told him I believed there had been a good deal of 
harm done, and explained what I had done. 

“Blow ‘off brakes’ and turn her over,” said he, 
“and let’s see how she goes.” 

I did so, and you would have sworn that she had 
square wheels. When she came to the “flat spots ” 
she seemed to drop a foot, and come down on the 
rails like a house falling over; and then when she 
went over them, she would raise herself bodily again 
as she came up on to the round surface. 

“Holy Moses!” said the superintendent. “Stop, 
and let’s get down and look at these tires.” 

We found grooves nearly a quarter of an inch deep 
and six or seven inches long in them. After a little 
consultation the superintendent ordered us to go on 
slowly to a junction ten miles ahead, where another 
engine could be procured to help the train, while I 
should ask for orders to dead-head home. 


142 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

“ And don’t you run this train over six miles an 
hour,” said he, “ or you’ll break all the rails and knock 
down all the bridges between here and M 

I ventured to remark that I supposed I was done. 

“ What for ? ” said he, looking at me, in evident 
surprise. 

“For gouging those new ties,” said I. 

“No, sir; you’re not done for that. You got a 
flag, didn’t you ? ” 

“Yes, sir.” 

“ Well, let me tell you one thing. While I’m 
superintendent of this division, if you ever fail to 
use every means in your power to stop when you 
are flagged, I’ll discharge you. These engines are to 
be used in two ways — to haul the trains and to help 
stop them when necessary. I wouldn’t care if you’d 
tied a hard knot in her, as long as it was done in an 
effort to stop when flagged. Go on now, an’ get out 
o’ here.” 

My fireman having returned, we started again, and 
of all the tough riding I ever did, the worst was done 
on that engine before I got her back to the yard. 
I used all the spare nuts and bolts that we had on 
both engines, replacing what she shook out and broke 

off before we got to M . Then I gathered up all 

I could find in the round-house, and the fireman and 
I got under her and riveted all the bolts down so the 
nuts couldn’t get off, and having received orders to 
return “wild,” we started. It was only thirty miles, 
but it was the longest and worst ride by all odds 


AT THE THROTTLE 


143 


that I ever experienced ; and I don’t believe there 
are a dozen railroad men in the country that ever 
went through a similar experience — the antics that 
she cut up when coupled to the train were not a 
mark to her actions now. 

We tied the bell fast “ on the centre.” Before we 
had gone a mile, the sand-box cover left us some- 
where, and before we had covered half the distance, 
the stack and head lamp were both tied fast on the 
back of the tender. The whistle pipe broke short 
off in the dome, and before I got the hole plugged 
with a piece of broomstick, she had blown her steam 
down to thirty pounds; and as the injector would 
only work when standing still, I delayed a couple of 
passenger trains before I was able to start again. 
The pilot worked loose, stuck its nose into a tie, and 
crumbled up. It was only under the most favorable 
circumstances that I dared leave one siding to run 
for another. Every time she lit on her grooves, the 
tender would ram the engine so spitefully that I 
feared she would shake all the coal out of the gang- 
ways before we got home, for the fireman was about 
as badly used up as I was, and hadn’t ambition 
enough to try to keep it back. 

We were all night on the road, and when we came 
pounding and banging into the yard at ten o’clock 
the next day, a reception committee, composed of 
the master mechanic and every man in the depart- 
ment under him, who could possibly get there, were 
awaiting our arrival. 


144 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

She was a beautiful sight ! No stack, no pilot, no 
head lamp, the wreck of the cab shackling about with 
every thump like a barrel with only one hoop, the 
running gear a mass of grease and dirt, the paint, 
one dome, sand-box, and cab burned off, and we two 
human wrecks riding her. She was a railroad Flying 
Dutchman, and only the day before she had been 
brand new, glorious in gold leaf and brilliant varnish, 
glittering brass, and Russia iron. 

Within ten feet of where I intended to stop, the 
coupling-pin of the tender broke, and on her next 
leap ahead she tore loose from safety-chain and fuel- 
boxes, leaving it behind. I got down the best way 
I could ; for besides being killed, I was starved to 
death ; and telling the round-house fireman he had 
better get the fire out of her, as the water was rather 
low in the boiler, I started to look her over, but 
seeing a broken equalizer, and immediately after- 
wards a break in the frame, I gave it up, and simply 
wrote on the slip, “ Engine 207 wants to go in the 
back shop,” filed my report, and went home. I 
stayed home two days, recuperating, and when I re- 
turned, I found an order in the engineer’s box for 
me to call at the office and get my time. 

I met the master mechanic coming out as I was 
going in. He didn’t even look at me, but I called 
him by name, and asked why I was discharged. 
He stopped, looked at me a moment in superlative 
contempt, and said, — 

“ I don’t know, I’m sure. I don’t see how this 







iiP 




“ She was a beautiful sight ! No stack, no pilot, 

no head lamp.” — p. 144. 





AT THE THROTTLE 145 

company can afford to dispense with the services 
of such a valuable man as you are.” 

I said no more to him, but went at once to the 
superintendent’s office. Fortunately, I found him 
in, and, for a wonder, unoccupied. When I pre- 
sented myself, he looked up inquiringly, and without 
a word I laid the bill of my time on his desk. He 
looked at it, and said, “Well, what’s wrong with 
this ? Isn’t your account all right ? ” 

“Oho!” thought I, “he sings a different tune 
from what he did the other day.” So I reminded 
him that he had promised me that I should not be 
discharged for what I had done. 

“ I don’t know that you are discharged for that,” 
said he, coldly, as he handed me back my bill ; “ what 
did Mr. Seely say he discharged you for ? ” 

I told him the answer Mr. Seely had made to my 
request for information, and he promised to inquire 
into it, saying that he would be as good as his word, 
and that I should not be discharged on that account. 
I asked him when I might expect to hear from him, 
and he said he couldn’t tell, was very busy just now, 
but as soon as he had time. 

I waited in suspense three weeks, and as it would 
soon be pay-day, I thought I had better find out if 
I was to sign the pay-roll for the last time or not. 
So again I called on the gentleman, and he told me, 
with a surprised look, that he had sanctioned my 
discharge ten days ago. He said the master me- 
chanic reported that I brought the engine in a total 


L 


146 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

wreck, and absented myself two days without leave, 
all of which I was obliged to admit ; and as he con- 
sidered that sufficient, I was graciously allowed to 
depart, with my hopes and aspirations suffering from 
a severe frost. 

As I was walking down the office stairs, I con- 
trasted the superintendent’s and master mechanic’s 
manners with those of the general manager. He 
was all kindness and geniality, seemed to try to 
make things as pleasant for us as possible, talked 
to us, and treated us as though we were his equals 
and personal friends, whereas they seemed always 
to think we were their worst enemies. All at once 
I remembered that he had said to us, “ Employees 
shall certainly have the right of appeal.” 

I had appealed to him once, and got justice; why 
not try it again ? As before, I had all to gain, and 
nothing to lose, and I would do it. I went to his office 
at once, and learned that he was out of town, had 
gone east, and was not expected back for a week or 
ten days. All right, I could wait ; I had always saved 
part of my wages, so I had no fear of getting “ hard 
up.” To be sure, I would be paid off in the mean- 
time, and in accepting my pay would in a certain 
sense acknowledge my discharge and close the case ; 
but I knew the general manager was all-powerful, 
and could, if he chose, reopen it at any time. 

I didn’t idle away the time, however ; for I knew 
it would be better for me to obtain employment else- 
where, if possible ; but though I went the rounds of 


AT THE THROTTLE 


147 


all the roads, I only found two that had the least 
idea of hiring any engineers, and when they learned 
that I had not been running a year, and was already 
discharged, their interest suddenly collapsed like a 
worn-out boiler tube, so that at the expiration of 
ten days I found myself still in undisturbed pos- 
session of my liberty. 

Again I called at the general manager’s office, 
learned that he had returned the day before, passed 
through the inquisition in the shape of the old gentle- 
man in the outer office, in the course of which he 
drew from me the fact that I was discharged, and 
was seeking reinstatement. He asked me what I 
expected the general manager to do, and volunteered 
the opinion that he didn’t see how that gentleman 
could interfere, as the division superintendent had 
sanctioned the matter. He got me so out of pa- 
tience that I was in the very act of giving him a 
rude answer, when I heard a quick, elastic step com- 
ing from the corridor, and turning, faced the general 
manager himself, — big, breezy, and genial. He saw 
me at once, came forward with his hand extended, 

and a hearty “ Ah ! good-morning, Mr. M . Fine 

morning ; what can I do for you ? Any one to see 
me, Stillman ? ” to the secretary. 

“No one but this gentleman, sir.” 

“Very well ; come inside, Mr. M ” 

As I followed him into his private office, I won- 
dered how in the world he managed to remember my 
name ; he had never seen me but once in his life, 


148 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

and that was nearly three years ago. As I have 
since acquired the trick myself, it no longer seems 
marvellous. 

After we were seated, I told him as rapidly and 
clearly as I could the whole story. He listened 
carefully without once interrupting, and when I had 
finished, he asked me what I wanted him to do. I 
was rather nonplussed at that ; for I had hoped he 
would offer to do something himself, so I answered 
somewhat sheepishly, that I didn’t think I ought to 
be discharged, as I didn’t consider myself to blame 
for what had happened. 

‘‘No,” said he, “from your standpoint you cer- 
tainly are not ; but I suppose you know the old say- 
ing that one story is good until another is told. Not 
that I doubt your statement for a moment ; but you 
know your conception of the affair is apt to be 
colored by your interest ; it certainly is a very seri- 
ous matter for an engineer to take out a brand-new 
engine, and bring her back wrecked ; still, it is quite 
within the bounds of possibility that you are not 
altogether to blame. I will look over the master 
mechanic’s and superintendent’s reports ; and if I 
find that they do not conflict materially with your 
story, you will hear from me, probably through one 
or the other of them. Will that be satisfactory ? ” 

Considering that it was all I had hoped to ac- 
complish, I told him that it would indeed ; bade him 
good-bye, and withdrew, hope once more springing 
in my breast. 


AT THE THROTTLE 


149 


Two days later on returning to the boarding-house 
for dinner, I was informed that the caller had left 
word that the master mechanic wished to see me 
in his office, so down I went, wondering what the 
verdict would be. 

“Well, sir,” said he when I entered, “have you 
got rested ? ” 

“Yes, sir.” 

“ Do you think you can manage now to double the 
division with one engine ? ” 

“Well, yes, sir, except under very extraordinary 
circumstances.” 

“ Better not have any more extraordinary circum- 
stances for a while ; they don’t pay. I don’t believe 
you are any richer for the last one, and I know the 
company isn’t. And now a word of advice: when 
you get in a tight place, and have an engine with a 
power brake, don’t reverse, after setting your brake ; 
or if you think she will hold more with the lever 
than with the brake, reverse her, and release your 
brake ; when you have done either, you have done all 
that you can do, and sliding the wheels don’t do any 
good, but just the reverse. I had to load that engine 
on a flat car, and send her to the central shop. 
Her frame was broken in three places, all the springs 
were gone, and boxes and journals totally ruined. I 
never saw an engine come out of a wreck so com- 
pletely worn out : you have already cost this com- 
pany more than the oldest engineer in the- employ. 
You can go out to the round-house, and report your- 
self ready to go to work now.” 


150 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

The next day, to the unbounded astonishment of 
all hands, my name was seen on the blackboard 
“ second-out,” and whenever I met any of the boys 
it was, “ Hey, I thought you were discharged,” or 
“ Say, old man, how did ye do it ? Give us a leaf out 
o’ yer book, will ye ? ” But I kept my own counsel, 
and to this day I presume that many of them think 
I was related to the president or some influential 
stockholder. 


CHAPTER XI 


BROKE IN TWO DOWN HILL FOR LIFE OR DEATH 

CABOOSE JUMPS A PRECIPICE A WRECK — RESULT 

OF A MORNING’S NAP — THE NEW SUPER — GIT OUT 
O’ HERE — A NEGLECTED ARCH 

Being in the freight service, I got into those tight 
places, and experienced those hair-raising accidents, 
which are the particular property of freight crews. 
For the passenger trains run on schedule time; the 
road is theirs on their time ; their engines and cars 
receive the most careful attention; station agents, 
switchmen, telegraph operators, track-gangs, and 
watchmen, and in fact, all employees, know when 
they are due, and look out for them — for to de- 
lay a passenger train for any cause is a serious 
offence ; and then, too, the superintendent is apt to 
be riding on any train, and each and every employee, 
no matter how lowly his position, firmly believes that 
the “ super ” cannot possibly ride over the road with- 
out seeing him and noting just how he is performing 
his duties, so that the passenger trains are well looked 
out for, and it is very seldom that anything happens 
to them. 

But the poor fellows on freight, — they are the 
ones that get all the hard knocks. Obliged to pick 

151 


I $2 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

their way over the road between trains, they have no 
rights at all ; they must get to their destination as 
soon as possible, or there is trouble ; but they must 
not exceed the regular schedule of freight-train 
speed, no matter how good a chance they may have 
to do so, they must not run by slow signals faster 
than the rules allow, nor through yards, nor go by 
a passenger train at a station even on the ^side; 
and, over and above all things, they must never get 
themselves, or allow themselves to be put, in such a 
position that they will have to flag a passenger train 
even for an instant. Track repair men and draw- 
bridge tenders all commence to work as soon as the 
passenger train has gone, when along comes a poor 
fellow on a freight who has been twenty-four hours 
on the road, and is trying to get home. He has 
barely time enough to get to the next siding to clear 
the following passenger train, and here’s a red flag. 

“ What’s the matter ? ” 

“ Section foreman’s got a rail up,” or “Drawbridge 
is open,” or “Construction train is ploughing off a 
load of gravel,” or in fact anything ; consequently 
the freight, being unable to go, delays the passenger, 
the freight engineer is called to the super’s office, all 
his explanations go for naught, and he is lucky if he 
gets off with a jawing and being told that he had no 
business there right ahead of a first-class train. And 
these are by no means a hundredth part of the little 
pleasantnesses that tend to turn a man’s hair gray, 
and make him wish he had been born a king. 



«* ‘ Section foreman’s got a rail up.’ ” — p. 152. 




IN THE NICK OF TIME 


153 


You remember that I hinted at a bad case of 
“ broke in two” that happened to me once; hap- 
pily it was not disastrous in its results but — 

There was on our division a mountain, and the 
track down this mountain was about seven miles 
long, and at the top was a tunnel half a mile long, 
opening out on the down-hill side, on a short curve, 
handy to look back on and see if your train was all 
together. The road down the mountain was quite 
crooked, as such places always are, and so steep that 
to take a train up its entire length without “ doub- 
ling,” was a feat to brag about. Half-way down, and 
hidden by a curve from both directions, was a station 
on one side, and a freight house on the other, and 
nearly all inward-bound trains had cars for the freight 
house, which compelled them to cross over the out- 
ward-bound track to get to the freight-house siding. 
The switch to this siding was a “head-on” switch 
to the outward or down-hill track ; and as that place 
came under the “yard-limit” rule, all freight trains 
were obliged to come in there dead slow, which they 
did. Consequently conductors had become careless, 
and were in the habit of leaving this head-on switch 
open after they went in, so as to be handy to get out 
again, and the flagman would go barely around the 
curve, so he could show his flag to any on-coming 
train, and stop them before they ran through the 
open switch. 

On the day of which I speak, I had a heavy mixed 
train, among them being four cars of railroad iron 


154 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


just about in the middle, and when my engine plunged 
into the tunnel I shut her off ; for she would roll all 
too fast after that, and need a few brakes set. It 
was early on a summer morning, and I knew the 
crew were apt to be asleep in the caboose, so I called 
for brakes to wake them up, but it didn’t have the 
desired effect. I looked back as I came out of the 
tunnel and watched the cars following each other out 
until about half the train was through, then there 
came no more. I pulled out at once and blew the 
“broke in two” signal again and again, all the time 
watching back for the rear end of my train. They 
must have parted just on the crest of the mountain, 
and the rear section must have nearly stopped before 
it pitched over and concluded to follow us ; for I 
opened out a good train length, and began to think 
that the cr^w must have got their end stopped, when 
they shot out of that tunnel like a comet, the rail- 
road iron in the lead. Again I pulled out for dear 
life, and blew my signal — not a man was out on the 
train, and as it all came through, the caboose (a little 
four-wheeled affair) was flirted off the track by the 
whip-like motion of the train in straightening out, 
and flying through the air dropped into a river more 
than five hundred feet below. 

Now I was in a tight box, not a living soul to set 
a brake on those cars ; for the entire crew, head 
brakeman and all, went down to death in their ca- 
boose — a severe penalty indeed for their neglect of 
duty in going to sleep on the road ; but one which 


IN THE NICK OF TIME 


155 


thousands of railroad men have paid, and will con- 
tinue to pay. 

I told my fireman to close the firebox door again, 
and jump if he wanted to, “For,” said I, “we shall 
probably never get to the bottom of this mountain.” 
I knew that the chances were a hundred to one that 
somebody would be working in the freight-house 
track at that time of day with the switch open, and 
in that case I was bound to go in there and wreck 
the whole outfit, for I couldn't stop any more than 
a three-year-old child could stop an earthquake. He 
looked at the fast-flying telegraph poles and didn’t 
dare to jump; so on we went, faster and faster, yet 
hardly fast enough ; the old engine jumped and rolled 
so that we could hardly hang on to her ; the coal was 
running out of each gangway in a steady stream, the 
lids of the tank-boxes flew open, and tools and oil- 
cans marked our trail. 

I shall never forget that wild ride down the moun- 
tain if I live to be a thousand years old. When she 
struck a reverse curve about two miles from the tun- 
nel, the fireman was thrown clear through the cab 
window, and literally torn limb from limb as he came 
in contact with the ground. I thought she had left 
the track altogether, for she rolled almost over, hurl- 
ing me across the cab and back again, as she struck 
the reverse end of the curve, and came down on her 
wheels with a crash, that shivered every pane of 
glass, and loosened every bolt and joint in the cab, 
until it was like an old basket, and rolled around 


156 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


with every roll of the engine — a new source of dan- 
ger to me, for if it left her, it must surely take me 
with it. 

I grabbed the whistle cord again as soon as I was 
able to steady myself enough, and frantically blew 
the “ broke in two ” signal, hoping that it would warn 
any one who might be in the switch, that I was com- 
ing and couldn’t stop. 

I couldn’t see ahead very well ; for it seemed as 
if the wind was blowing a hurricane, and behind me 
I raised such a cloud of dust, that I couldn’t even 
see the rear car of the section I had. So I just 
hung on desperately, blew my warning signal, and 
watched the steam-gauge, and as the steam went 
down I pulled the throttle out a notch at a time, 
until at length I had her wide open, hooked up 
within a couple of notches of the centre, and the 
exhaust sounded like a continuous roar. And now 
I saw ahead of me a man in the middle of the track, 
languidly waving a red flag. Yes; it was all over 
with me now — the freight-house switch was open. 
Mechanically I again blew the signal ; then realizing 
that I had not more than half a dozen more breaths 
to draw in this world, a kind of demoniac frenzy 
seemed to seize me — a desire to do all the damage 
possible with my dying breath, to annihilate every- 
thing from the face of the earth, as it were. Clutch- 
ing the reverse lever with both hands, I with difficulty 
unhooked her, and dropped her down a couple of 
notches, and as fast as she was going before, I felt 



And now I saw ahead of me a man in the middle 
of the track.” — p. 156. 






IN THE NICK OF TIME 


157 


her leap ahead under the impetus of the longer point 
of cut-off, and a fierce joy surged over me to think 
what a world-beater my wreck would be. 

Looking ahead again, I saw that the flagman had 
dropped his flag, and was running at a breakneck 
speed for the switch. For a wonder they hadn’t 
sent out the biggest dunce on the train to flag. He 
had sense enough on seeing me coming, and hear- 
ing my signal, to comprehend the situation, and wit 
enough to know the only right thing to do, which 
was more than I had any right to expect. 

Once more coward hope rose in my breast. If he 
could get that switch closed, the absolute certainty 
of instant death at that point would be over — the 
chances were about one in a thousand. To spur him 
on, I again blew what then sounded to me like the 
despairing death shriek of the iron devil I rode, and 
to give him every second of time possible, I shut off 
my throttle, with the immediate result that the cars 
bumped up against the tender with a shock that 
nearly threw me over backwards ; but I hung on 
and watched that man eagerly as he flew with all 
the speed that was in him for that switch. What 
if he should stub his toe, as men so often do under 
like circumstances ? It would mean death for me 
before I could close my eyes ; and, even then, I re- 
member thinking how fortunate it was for me, that 
owing to the proverbial laziness of flagmen, he hadn’t 
gone out as far as the rules required, but had stayed 
near the switch. 


158 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

I saw him reach it, and stoop down, clutch the 
handle, and at the first effort fail to lift it out of 
the notch in which it lies when the switch is open ; 
and then I swept by like a cyclone. He had got the 
switch closed just in the nick of time, and the rush 
of wind from the passing train hurled him down a 
fifty-foot embankment, bruising him and tearing his 
clothes, but fortunately doing him no serious injury. 

What did the company do to reward him for his 
heroism in preventing a most disastrous wreck? 
What did they do ? Let him off with a reprimand 
for not having been out a proper distance with his 
flag, and discharged him within thirty days for a 
repetition of the offence at the same place. 

I saw in the siding the engine that I came so near 
hitting, and the engine and train crew out in the field, 
staring with blanched faces ; one laggard just tum- 
bling over the fence as I whirled by. I heard a crash, 
and looking back saw that the corner of the head car 
had rolled over far enough to break off the water- 
crane that stood alongside the track, resulting in a 
bad washout, before they could get the water shut 
off. I breathed much easier now, and it was with a 
light heart that I pulled up the lever again and 
gradually opened her out. I was running through a 
yard where the rules required me to reduce speed to 
six miles an hour, but a train going sixty-six could 
not have kept up with me. I now began to almost 
enjoy my ride, for the relaxation was so great after 
what I had passed through that it didn't seem as if 
there was any more danger now. 


IN THE NICK OF TIME 


159 


There was a passenger station at the foot of the 
mountain, and looking at my watch, I saw that a 
train was just about due there ; so again I began to 
blow my signal to warn them to look out for them- 
selves, for the station was on my side of the road, so 
that passengers and baggage had to cross my track. 
Yes, there she stood as I came in sight — a little three- 
car local. Again I blew to them to make sure that 
they understood what was going on, although I could 
see that the track ahead of me was clear; for the 
operator at the preceding station, with rare presence 
of mind, had telegraphed ahead that I was coming 
“ broke in two,” and fast as I went the message beat 
me, and though I couldn’t hear it for the inferna^ 
roar and clatter, yet I saw, in answer to my own 
signal, two short puffs of white steam from the 
engine’s whistle, which meant “All right, come 
along.” And come along I did, I have no doubt, to 
the amazement of those passengers, who certainly 
never saw a freight train wheeled at that rate before. 
The agent had a truck-load of baggage ready to take 
across as soon as I passed, but the suction of the train 
drew the whole business under the wheels, and it dis- 
appeared. He was discharged because the superin- 
tendent said he was a d — d fool. 

The engineer of the local told me afterwards that 
all he saw was the front end of the engine, with my 
face at the window ; then there came a big cloud of 
dust and a roar, followed directly by another roar as 
the rear section passed him, and that was all he 
knew about it. 


i6o 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


I was now down the mountain, thank Heaven, and 
on level ground, but the rear section wasn’t, and I 
hadn’t the least idea how far it was behind me ; so I 
kept the old girl waltzing as fast as I could — which 
wasn’t very fast, as my steam was down to sixty 
pounds. I didn’t dare get down and look at my fire, 
for fear of being killed in case the rear section 
caught me, which was now more imminent than 
ever ; as while I was losing way on the level ground, 
their speed would hardly be checked at all. 

I now began to think seriously of jumping, and if 
I had, it would probably have been the last of me ; 
for the bank there was a rock fill formed by blasting 
out the high rock on the other side of the road. I 
was still going a good thirty-five or forty miles an 
hour, and besides, I was so shaken up by that terrible 
ride, and had undergone such a severe mental strain, 
that I was as weak as a rag, and lame and sore all 
over. 

Suddenly rounding a curve, I saw a man standing 
by the switch of a long siding, giving me a frantic 
“go ahead” signal. At that sight my spirits rose 
about two thousand per cent, for I knew I was saved. 

Giving him an answering toot toot, I dropped my 
reverse lever down in the corner, and pulled her wide 
open to get as far from the rear section as possible, 
and give him all the chance I could to throw the 
switch, and get out of the way. 

This siding itself was on a large curve, and I 
found before I had gone a quarter of its length that 


IN THE NICK OF TIME 


161 


it was partly occupied by a number of loaded coal 
cars. Now here arose another new combination. 
There was going to be a wreck on that siding, and 
I might get caught in it yet ; for if I didn’t get far 
enough away from the point of collision, some of 
the cars would be apt to pile over on top of me, and 
then again if, in my haste to get out of the way, I 
got to the further switch at just the right time, they 
might be shoved out, and ram me. You see, it fre- 
quently happens on the railroad that you have to 
think of several things at once, and not be very long 
about it, either ; and the result of my rapid thinking 
on this occasion was that I had done enough towards 
saving the company’s property for one day, and that 
now was a good time to look out for myself a bit. 

I pulled her over and “ plugged ” her ; but as my 
steam was low, I concluded she would stop herself 
quicker shut off, so I shut her off ; and while I was 
waiting for her to slow up enough to give me a 
chance to jump on the left side, the crash came. 

There was a great smashing and grinding and 
piling up round the curve behind me ; but where 
I was, the cars merely ran together with a great 
ker-bump and rattling of links and pins, which I 
could hear continuing on round the curve ahead 
as the lost motion between the cars was violently 
taken up. After the noise stopped a bit I started 
to back up, when, remembering that in all probabil- 
ity the opposite track was blocked by the wreckage, 
I ran ahead instead to the next station, and no- 

M 


1 62 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

tified the agent to hold all trains until further 
orders. 

I then reported to the train-despatcher by wire, 
and he ordered me to cross over to the other track 
and run back to the wreck, find out how the tracks 
were, and report to him from this station, the 
agent keeping the track open for my return. 

The agent, a bright, ambitious young fellow, who 
is now a division superintendent on the same 
road, helped me to fire up, and back I went. I 
found, as I had expected, that both tracks were 
blocked, the wrecked cars being piled in heaps, 
mixed and tangled with the railroad iron that had 
composed part of my train, while coal, flour, agri- 
cultural machinery, and all sorts of merchandise 
were scattered all over the ground. 

All this property and four human lives were lost 
because the train crew took an early morning nap. 

Yes indeed ; it is true that if everybody obeyed 
orders and attended to business, the only accidents 
on railroads would be those caused by forces over 
which the company has no control, such as wash- 
outs, landslides, and so forth. I know it is claimed 
that watchmen should be stationed at places where 
these things are liable to occur, and as a rule this 
is done ; but the trouble is that they often happen 
where nobody ever had the least idea that there 
was any danger, and while the watchman is guard- 
ing the place that is supposed to be shaky, down 
comes the whole side of a mountain, or out goes a 


IN THE NICK OF TIME 


163 

thousand yards of track, where no one had thought 
such a thing possible. Then, again, the time of 
sliding is not given in the time table. Those things 
are just as likely to happen when a train is pass- 
ing, or too close to stop, as at any other time. 

There was another long hill going the other 
way, not as long as the last one I spoke of, but 
much steeper; and near the foot of this hill there 
was a bridge, which was a curve in itself, and as 
it was built over a muck-hole, on piles, there were 
very strict orders for all trains to go over it “ dead 
slow.” As the grade, however, continued slightly 
for half a mile or so beyond the bridge, it was 
customary for freight trains to roll down the hill 
about as fast as they dared to hit the bridge, and 
as soon as the engine was over, to let off all brakes, 
when the engineer would give her a little steam, 
and with the momentum acquired on the grade, the 
train would go flying, which was a great help ; and 
as it was what railroad men call “good running 
ground,” it was considered perfectly safe to do so. 
One side of the track there was a high rock cut, 
and on the other a river. This rock cut was fre- 
quently inspected by the section gang, and any 
loose stones that could be pried out were taken 
down. Nothing had ever fallen there, and nobody 
expected that anything ever would. 

There was a watchman stationed at the bridge to 
report anybody going over it too fast, and about a 
mile and a half beyond the foot of the hill, where a 


1 64 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S story 

tree had once fallen down, bringing a lot of dirt and 
stones with it, another. 

We had a new superintendent, and he was doing 
a great deal of riding on engines to get points, learn 
the road, and see whom he could catch violating any 
of the rules. Well, this night when I climbed up 
after oiling at the water-plug, I saw somebody sitting 
on the box on my side ; and shoving the torch in his 
face, discovered the new super. I bid him good 
evening, called the flag, and went on. 

I tried to get him into conversation, but he wasn’t 
at all sociable, so I stuck my head out of the window, 
and as I rode along I wondered how he came to be 
at that water-plug, and wished he had got on to ride 
with somebody else instead of me. It was absolutely 
necessary to let the conductor know he was there, 
for at the rate we were in the habit of going down 
“ Hickory Hill ” he would be sure to jack us all up 
for thirty days. But how to do it was the question. 
I knew he was foxy, and would be sure to get on to 
any tricks by which I might try to communicate with 
the caboose. But for once kind fortune favored me, 
and a slight accident which at any other time would 
have been very annoying, now helped me out. 

In cleaning the fire at the water-plug, a spark 
had got into the back driving-box, and the fumes 
of burning waste and oil began to smell quite 
strong. 

Turning to the “headman,” I said, “Jimmy, run 
back in the caboose, and get Clayton’s dope-bucket ; 


IN THE NICK OF TIME 165 

I’ve got a driving-box afire. Hurry up, now ; we’re 
getting close to Hickory Hill.” 

“All right,” said Jimmy ; and away he went like a 
lamplighter over the top of the cars. He was a 
bright boy, and could see as far through a stone wall 
as the next one, and so could the super ; for, turning 
to me, he said, — 

“ Isn’t it customary to carry dope-buckets on the 
engines ? ” 

I told him it was, but that the master mechanic 
had ordered them all off about a month before, which 
was true. 

“Are you going to pack that box before you get to 
the foot of Hickory ? ” said he. 

“ No, sir ; but I will be all ready to run into Mill 
Creek siding when I get down, if I have it on the 
engine.” 

“Ah ! ” said he ; “I see,” with a sneer, which told 
me that he did indeed see through my little subter- 
fuge. 

Well, of course the conductor overdid the thing, 
and held me up that night down Hickory so that you 
might have got off anywhere, and picked a hat -full of 
huckleberries and got on again. I was ashamed my- 
self, the thing was so plain. 

When the train had crawled about half-way over 
the bridge, the super said to me, — 

“You’d better blow ‘off brakes’; I’d like to get 
home by bedtime to-morrow, if possible.” 

So I blew them off, and when I thought the caboose 


1 66 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

was over the bridge, and not till then, I hooked her 
up and pulled out, making up my mind to give him a 
ride the rest of the way down anyhow. 

It was a fine moonlight night, and I soon had the 
train bobbing along like a string of corks on the 
edge of a seine. The old girl was doing herself 
proud, and I said to myself, — 

“I’ll bet he’ll get enough of riding on the hard 
cover of that box before I get to the siding” — when 
all at once I saw in the bright moonlight not three 
telegraph poles away, and square across the track, a 
rock as big as a small house. I shut her off, yelled 
“ Git out o’ here ! ” and made a scrambling jump over 
the legs of the super, who was watching the fireman 
poke the fire. 

The next thing I knew I was on the ground, rolling 
over and over, spreading out my arms and legs try- 
ing to stop myself. Before I got stopped, the engine 
hit the rock, reared partly up, and then turning over, 
crossed the other track and plunged into the river. 
Her tank lay on the bank alongside of her, bottom 
up ; three cars leaped clean over her and sank in the 
deep water ; four more climbed over the rock and dis- 
tributed themselves on the other side of it, tearing 
up the track and knocking down the telegraph poles. 

There had been two flat cars near the middle of 
the train, loaded with small portable boilers, about ten 
feet long by three in diameter, and when I got slowed 
up enough to see anything, the first that caught my 
eye was one of those boilers rolling after me. Then 


IN THE NICK OF TIME 


167 


I wished I could increase my speed again ; but that 
was out of the question, and even if I had stopped 
right there, it would have been over me before I 
could get up, rolling me as flat as a pancake. 

For, I suppose, about a minute I was as badly 
scared as I ever have been in my life ; but at last, 
just as I had about made up my mind to shut my 
eyes for the last time, one end of the boiler struck 
against something that turned it from its course, and 
it rolled into the river. After a few more involuntary 
revolutions on my part, I also stopped. 

During all this time you are to understand that 
the cars had been climbing on top of the rock and 
of each other, like a lot of rats trying to escape from 
a terrier, and had become pretty thoroughly wrecked. 
We gathered around, and called to each other until 
all were present except Mr. Gleason, the superin- 
tendent, and we then commenced to search the wreck 
for him. It was difficult hunting, because the cars 
were piled on top of each other ; and though the moon 
was shining brightly, we should have been better 
off for a few lanterns, as in among the wreckage, 
where we expected to find the body, it was, of course, 
quite dark. Having sent a flag out each way, we were 
only four to search, and I can say for myself that I 
could not bring myself to feel with my hands where 
I was unable to see. 

After a while we abandoned the search, until we 
could get lamps ; and as the man who went back had 
been ordered to flag all the way to the last station 


1 68 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

and report the wreck to the train-despatcher, we 
stood idly talking the matter over near the tender, 
when the conductor suddenly said,— 

“ Be quiet, boys ! I thought I heard something 
under the tank.” We listened a moment, and were 
sure we heard faint sounds, like something moving 
and muttering under there. 

I ran round to the other side, where I had noticed 
that one corner was a little raised up, and stooping 
down called out, “Mr. Gleason!” No answer, but 
still there was no doubt that somebody or something 
was under there ; so telling the others that I would 
find out, I crawled in. There had been about half a 
tank of fine, soft coal in the tender when she turned 
over, and the tank itself was nearly full of water ; so 
the whole mass was now lying there, a pool of inky 
black mud ; for there was a slight hollow in the 
ground that just held it nicely. 

As I crawled into the mess on my hands and 
knees, I suddenly bumped heads with some one who 
immediately drew back. 

“ Is that you, Mr. Gleason ? ” said I ; but I got no 
answer, and reaching round in the dark, I soon felt 
the fur collar of his overcoat, and knew it was he. 
“ If you’ll follow me, sir, I’ll show you the way out,” 
said I. 

We were both on our knees under the tank, and 
half-way to our waists in the black mud. Without 
saying a word, he threw his arms about my neck and 
tried to throw me; but I was a young fellow then 


IN THE NICK OF TIME 


169 


and pretty muscular, and realizing that he had gone 
temporarily crazy, I shouted to the others to come in 
and help me, while I exerted myself to the utmost to 
prevent him from throwing me, and at the same time 
to work him along towards the opening. 

And, oh my, what a tussle that was ! I can’t 
think of it even yet without half shuddering and 
half laughing. 

After I had called to the fellows outside, not a 
word was spoken by either of us, — we hadn’t the 
wind to spare. He was a wiry chap, and he was 
bound not to be taken out ; and before the others 
got inside, by an unlucky slip of my knee, I fell, so 
that he could get his weight on my neck, and he 
pressed my face down into the water. 

I could hear the conductor calling me by name 
and asking where I was, and of course was unable 
to answer or even breathe ; but he could hear the 
hard breathing of the super, and knew pretty near 
what was the matter. So he hurried as much as 
he could under the circumstances, and soon had him 
off of me ; and not any too soon, either, for I was 
nearly suffocated. 

With plenty of help, we soon got him out ; and I 
wish you could have seen him when we stood him 
up in the moonlight ! 

He was always a very dressy man, and when I 
found him on the engine that night, if I hadn’t 
known him, I should have thought he was some 
broker or merchant ; for he had on a splendid over- 


170 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

coat with heavy fur collar and cuffs, and, under that, 
a handsome suit of clothes. 

Of course the entire outfit was ruined ; and he 
was a sight for gods and men, — as black as the 
coal, and as wet as a drowned rat, while he could 
hardly stand up with the weight of his wet clothes. 

His senses returned, though, as soon as he got out 
into the moonlight, and he asked at once what we 
had done to protect the road ; and, finding we had 
done all that could be done, he told us his experi- 
ence. He said that when I jumped past him in 
the cab, his first thought was that we were about 
to collide with the rear of a preceding train ; but, 
before he could make a move to get out of the 
way, he was under the tender, and all recollection 
of where he was or of what had happened left him 
at once, and he thought he was in the freight yard 
on the road he had left. It seems they had been 
troubled a great deal with freight-yard thieves, and 
he thought it was a dark, rainy night, and he had 
gone out to do a little detecting on his own hook. 
Hearing us talking alongside the tender, and think- 
ing he had found the thieves, he started in our 
direction, and, as he supposed, stepped into a mud- 
hole between the tracks. Then when I grappled 
with him, he thought, of course, that the Philistines 
had executed a flank movement and collared him. 

From the fact, however, that he had no know- 
ledge of the half-hour that elapsed between the 
overturning of the tank and the time that he heard 


IN THE NICK OF TIME lfl 

our voices, it is quite plain that he had been un- 
conscious. 

Now that, you see, was a case of a rock-slide in 
a place that was considered perfectly safe ; whereas, 
at the place a little farther along, where it was con- 
sidered necessary to keep a watchman day and night, 
nothing ever happened again as long as I remained 
on the road, which was several years afterwards. 

There was a tunnel on the road under a low hill. 
It was rock for nearly its whole length, but within 
a hundred yards of one end they found a kind of 
loose sand and smooth, round stones, such as you 
find on the sea-beach ; and here it had been neces- 
sary to arch the tunnel with brick. In the course 
of years it was observed that the brick arch showed 
signs of weakness. The roadmaster reported it, 
and a bulletin order was issued for all trains to go 
through that tunnel at a speed not exceeding six 
miles per hour. 

Watchmen were stationed at each end to see that 
the order was obeyed, and another man was sta- 
tioned at the bad place to watch it and give timely 
warning if it showed signs of getting any worse, 
while presumably the civil engineers of the road were 
making their plans to repair it without interfering 
with the traffic, — for that’s the way all work has to 
be done on railroads. 

The old arch didn’t get any worse, apparently, 
until one night the “cannon ball” came along, and, 
agreeably to the bulletin order, the engineer let her 
roll slowly through the tunnel. 


172 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

Just as he passed the watchman, one brick dropped 
from directly over the centre of the track, and, strik- 
ing the point of the pilot, glanced over and broke 
against the wall within a foot of the watchman’s 
head, who, luckily, was a rather nervous man, so he 
ran, yelling for dear life, out of the tunnel, and that 
saved him. 

The engineer instinctively pulled his reverse lever 
over and applied the brake ; then, hearing the bricks 
clattering down on top of his cab, he let the brake 
off again, dropped the lever ahead, and gave her 
steam to get out before the whole roof fell in ; and 
it was just those semi-unconscious acts of his that 
prevented any loss of life in that case, for next to 
the engine was an express car, and next to that a 
baggage car. 

The express messenger had just gone to the head 
end of his car, where his desk was, to look over his 
way-bills, and the baggage-master had gone back in 
the smoker to get a drink of water, when down came 
hundreds of tons of loose sand and stones directly 
between the two cars, crushing them and burying 
them so that only the extreme end of each was out- 
side the pile of dirt that filled the tunnel solid full. 

The engine broke loose and ran on out of the 
tunnel altogether; and, after waiting and listening 
awhile to see if any more was coming down, the fire- 
man and the two watchmen went back with torches 
and lanterns to see how things looked. 

When they got back, they could hear the express 


IN THE NICK OF TIME 


173 


messenger kicking and pounding in the corner of the 
car, so the fireman returned to the engine, got the 
axe, and chopped him out. 

In the meantime, the frightened passengers made 
their way back to the next station in the rear, and 
reported the accident to the station agent, who 
passed the word along to the superintendent that 
the engine, baggage, and express cars were buried 
in the tunnel. The engineer’s wife, who was in 
delicate health, was thrown into convulsions on hear- 
ing the report, and died before it was known that her 
husband had escaped. 


CHAPTER XII 


OVERWORK TRUSTING A CONDUCTOR — FIFTY-TWO 

HOURS ON DUTY THE CALLER A TRAMP’S STORY 

— LEARNING A LESSON DEATH OF THE TRAMP 

Our lives were not, as you may have been led to 
suppose, all made up of accidents, by any means. 
They were varied by long spells of semi-idleness 
when freight was slack, or being worked to death 
when it was running heavy, for at such times it is not 
admitted that men need rest or sleep ; and I have had 
a round-house foreman indignantly ask, “What’s the 
matter with you, that you register for rest ? Y ou’ve 
only been at work twenty-four hours ! There’s Tom 
Bailey has been on his engine thirty-six hours, and he 
ain’t asking for rest yet. Some of you fellows ought 
to get a job clerkin’ in a drug store.” 

You have probably seen accounts of the inquests 
on railroad wrecks, where men have testified that 
they were so worn out with overwork that they 
were unable to properly attend to business. This 
is a common occurrence. The worst case of the 
kind that ever happened to me was when on one 
occasion, on arriving at the end of the division, after 
a particularly tedious trip, I was ordered to return at 
once sixty miles down the road to bring up thirty 
i74 


FIFTY-TWO HOURS ON DUTY 1 75 

cars of coal, as fuel for the engines. “ And hurry up 
with it ; we want it.” I protested that I was tired, 
and unfit to go, but was told there was nobody 
else ; so I coaled, watered, and oiled up, got the 
caboose, and started. 

It might be thought that after having hauled a 
heavy train over the road, it would be a snap to go 
back with nothing but the caboose ; whereas, though 
it is true that better time can be made, yet it is terri- 
bly hard riding on a heavy freight engine, with no 
train to hold her down. She shakes you up like a 
die in a box, with a peculiar sidewise motion that 
affects the loins and back, so that before I got half 
way to where I was going, my back ached like a hol- 
low tooth. However, I was anxious to get there as 
soon as possible, in order to get back and get some 
sleep, so I ran her right up to the speed limit, — and 
a little more, — regardless of my lame back. 

When I got there, I found four hours’ switching 
(for which you don’t get paid) to get my train to- 
gether; but at last we got started. One of the 
important things for an engineer to do is to figure 
out at what plugs he can take water most advanta- 
geously ; for as this is a job that causes considerable 
delay, it is desirable to do as little of it as possible ; 
yet it is a high crime to run out of water, so that lots 
of brain-fag and worriment are expended on this 
item. On my trip back I had the hill to climb that 
we rolled down so slowly the night the super was 
aboard. No one had ever taken thirty cars of coal 


i ?6 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


up that hill, but I didn’t know that ; for if I had, I 
would have allowed for the contingency of doubling 
the hill, both in my water calculation and in estimat- 
ing my time ahead of the passenger trains. I knew, 
of course, that it would be a hard tug up there, so I 
cautioned the fireman to get a good welding heat on 
her. I got as much water into her as she would 
stand, and after oiling the cylinders, took a run for 
the hill. 

We had just taken the hill nicely when the con- 
ductor came running over the train, waving his 
hat and yelling for me to stop. Not knowing what 
might be the matter, I shut off ; when he came up 
and said he had a hot box on the last car. Perhaps I 
didn’t read the riot act to that conductor, to stop me 
right at the foot of the hill for a hot box, when, if he 
knew anything, he knew that long before I could get 
up there he would be able to walk alongside the car 
and pack it. 

The damage was done though, so I told him to cut 
the train in two, and I would take my end up while 
he packed his box. By the time I got my train 
together again on top of the hill, I had barely water 
enough to reach the next plug, the fire was in bad 
shape, and not so very many miles behind us there 
was a mail train ; so the situation resolved itself into 
this, that with barely water and time enough, and a 
poor fire, I needed to make an extra good run of 
fifteen miles. I was far from happy, especially as I 
could see the steam dropping with the regularity of 


FIFTY-TWO HOURS ON DUTY 


177 


clock-work, though the fireman was working like a 
slave. About half-way to where I had to go was a 
little station, with a crossover switch, and a slight 
grade against me. I humored her all I could to get 
over that little lump, for then my immediate troubles 
would be about over. It was not to be, however ; she 
gave one expiring gasp and died before reaching the 
summit. 

The thing to do now was to back across out of the 
way of the mail which was nearly due, but there was 
also a train due on the other track ; and as their time 
of passing this station was only about five minutes 
apart, the conductor, in obedience to the rule made 
for just exactly such emergencies, went into the 
telegraph office to find out if either of the trains were 
late ; for if one was late, we might take advantage of 
that fact to avoid delaying them both. 

They were both on time, and while he was tele- 
graphing both ways to ascertain that fact, the mail 
came up behind us and stopped. 

In a big hurry now, the switches were opened and 
I was signalled back. As it was slightly down grade, 
I merely gave them a little kick, and away they rolled. 
As I went past the conductor, I asked him if he had a 
man on the rear car to set a brake and stop them 
after I got across. He said yes ; but he lied, and I 
thought so at the time. 

When the engine was over all clear, I called for 
brakes, but I got no brakes ; and they were rolling 
faster than ever, and in the meantime the other 


N 


i 7 8 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


passenger train had arrived and stood facing me. 
It was now dark, so that all I could see was lamp 
signals ; again and again I called for brakes, but 
there was no one on the train to set them ; the mail 
had gone, and I ought now to be crossing back again 
out of the other fellow’s way. If I stopped them 
with the engine, the chances were ninety-nine to a 
hundred that I should break them in two. It was 
the only thing to do, though, so as gently as I 
could I checked them, and, as I fondly hoped, pulled 
my whole train across out of the way ; but, alas ! the 
caboose and two cars had broken off and rolled away 
down the grade, no one could say how far, so I had 
to back up again, clear of the switch, cut off the 
engine, and go back after those cars. There was 
nobody on them, and the caboose lights had not been 
lit — consequently it was a hunt in the dark ; and as 
one of the things you mustn’t do is to run into and 
wreck your rear end, when going back after it, 
I had to go very carefully, while all this time the 
passenger train stood there waiting. At last I got 
them, pulled them across in a hurry, although, to be 
sure, it was hardly worth while to hurry now, and 
after the passenger train had gone, I shoved them 
back over the switch again, pulled up the train, 
shoved it over and coupled them all together, and 
pulled them back on to my track again. 

I was now nearly out of water, and in less than an 
hour the limited would be on top of us. The next 
water-plug was five miles away; I cut the engine 


FIFTY-TWO HOURS ON DUTY 


179 


loose and ran for it, took half a tank as quickly as 
possible, and started back after my train. In all 
cases where an engine has to come back after a train 
in the night, the rules require a man to be stationed 
on the head car with a lamp to signal the engineer 
back ; but I had no faith in my conductor, so I didn’t 
dare to come back very fast, imagining every minute 
that I saw the head of the car looming out suddenly 
from the blackness right behind the tender, and all 
this time the precious minutes were slipping away — 
minutes that I needed so badly to get out of the way 
of the limited. 

I was right in not trusting the conductor ; for 
though I came back whistling for a signal, the first 
thing I saw was the station lights. They were all in 
there having a smoke — “didn’t expect me back so 
soon,” they said. 

Though I tried my best to stop, knowing I must 
be close to the train, I hit it hard enough to break 
the draw-bar in the car, and by the time they got 
that fixed up there was no earthly hope of getting to 
the next siding ahead of the limited, so once more I 
backed over that crossover, but not until I saw a 
man swinging a lantern on the last car. 

After the limited got by, we pulled across once 
more, and by this time it was doubtful if I had water 
enough to get to the siding ; but as we had all night 
before us now, I let her take it easy, and got there 
after a while, with the tank dry and the boiler not 
much better. I got down to oil while the fireman 


i8o 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


was taking water, and discovered that the link-lifting 
spring was broken, and while I was looking at it and 
wondering how that could have happened without 
my knowing it, the head brakeman came up with an 
order for me to weigh that coal. 

My back was almost broken, and I was more than 
half dead with fatigue and worry, and now I had to 
weigh thirty cars of coal without a lifting spring. 
The big cast-iron links and long eccentric rods must 
have weighed at least two hundred pounds, and as it 
is necessary in putting cars on the scale to move the 
engine back and forth continually, I saw what a nice 
time I was going to have handling that old reverse 
lever. 

There was a way freight engine lying in a spur 
back of the station, so I telegraphed to the train-de- 
spatcher, telling him how I was fixed, and asking per- 
mission to use that engine to weigh the coal with. 
The answer I got was short, but not sweet: “Use 
the engine you have.” Back I went to the yard, and 
weighed that coal. In order to back her, I had to 
brace both feet against the front of the cab, and pull- 
ing with all my might raise the heavy links ; then, 
perhaps, I would have the misfortune to move the 
cars half an inch too far, so I would get a signal to 
go ahead a bit, and on unhooking the lever it would 
fly forward with such force as nearly to jerk me 
through the front windows. Remember I was nearly 
dead with fatigue and hunger, when I started on this 
most delectable trip. However, if you will work for 


FIFTY-TWO HOURS ON DUTY l8l 

a corporation, you must do as you’re told, and do 
it when and how you’re told, too. 

I got the coal weighed, sometime and somehow, 
coupled on to them, and the conductor coming ahead, 
began to tell how far we could go if we hurried 
up, and got out ahead of train 12 ; but I cut him 
short by telling him to go in the office and tell Chi- 
cago that I couldn’t go another foot, until I got five 
or six hours’ sleep. Off he went grumbling that 
we’d never git anywhere that way. But I knew I 
should be unable to keep awake, while he could lean 
back in his caboose and snooze all the way in. Back 
he came in a few minutes. 

“ Chicago says, * All right. Go to sleep.’ ” 

I pulled them into a convenient siding, picked as 
smooth a lump of coal as I could find in the tender, 
upholstered it with waste, and spreading my coat on 
the foot-board for a mattress, dropped the curtain, 
and curled myself in the short, inconvenient, hot, and 
dirty cab for a few hours’ rest (?) to the tune of the 
fireman’s grumbling. He was the toughest man I 
ever saw on a railroad or anywhere else. He didn’t 
get fat on hard work — there was no more flesh on 
him than there is on a bird-cage ; but he could stand 
more grief than the old engine herself, and thrive on 
it, too. He had been right with me ever since we 
left Chicago, the day before, shovelling fine feed into 
the old kettle, — and she had an appetite like a stone- 
crusher, — yet now he kicked because I wanted rest. 
He said we might better go on in ; it was only two 


182 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


or three hours’ run, and then we could get proper 
rest and a good sleep. He couldn’t sleep on an en- 
gine, and so he kept his clack going until I begged 
him to be quiet and let me sleep anyway. With that 
he got off, and I was in hopes he had gone back to 
the caboose. 

My back ached so, I was so tired, and my position 
was so cramped and uncomfortable, that it was some 
time before I could even doze. Just as I began to 
drop off, I heard some one step up in the tank, and 
glancing through a hole in the curtain saw that it 
was the fireman returning, and as he had a cigar in 
his mouth, I knew he must have been in some gin- 
mill, as no other place would be open at that time 
of night. With ponderous caution he approached my 
side of the engine, making a clattering stumble over 
the fire-hook, which he had left under foot, and rais- 
ing the corner of the curtain, peeped cautiously in. 

Not caring to be entertained by his idle talk, I 
breathed heavily as though sound asleep, although 
it was an effort to take long breaths of the distillery 
perfume which he wafted into my ill-ventilated cham- 
ber. However, I felt that I was suffering in a good 
cause, as I believed that if left to himself he must 
eventually go to sleep. 

Not he ; he stood in the tender, looking around 
awhile, and scratching himself, then he carefully 
picked up the hook, and laid it with a clink on top 
of the tank, opened both the oil and tool boxes and 
looked into them vacantly for a while, shut each of 


FIFTY-TWO HOURS ON DUTY 1 83 

them with some noise, just enough to be irritating, 
and got down. 

“Thank the Lord,” thought I, “he’s gone to get 
another drink, and maybe he’ll stay till morning.” 

Not at all. I soon heard a peculiar hissing, grat- 
ing sound, that told me he was pulling the flue-rod 
out from the tank-truck bolsters, where he always 
carried it. So the flues were to be bored ! I knew 
that would put the everlasting veto to my hopes 
of getting any sleep that night ; and though I might 
have forbidden him doing it, I was so astonished at 
this display of endurance on his part that I was 
really ashamed to say a word. 

He w r ent at his job with the most elaborate pre- 
cautions against making noise, but only succeeded 
in making more, if anything. I lay there and 
watched him through the hole in the curtain, his 
face shining with perspiration in spots where he had 
wiped off the coal dust, as he squatted in the coal 
and peered into the furnace, ramming, twisting, 
partly withdrawing and then savagely thrusting in 
the old flue-rod. Listening to the monotonous 
scrape of the rod across the bottom of the door, at 
last I dozed off, as it seemed for about a minute. . 

Somebody was shaking my shoulder and saying, 
“Hey! hey!” I looked up, dazed and wondering, 
into the fireman’s grimy face. “Seven’s just gone, 
an’ if we foller her, we c’n go right in,” said he. 
“ I’ve got the flues all punched out, an’ a good fire ; 
hurry up.” 


1 84 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

With great difficulty I extricated myself from the 
reverse lever and seat box, and crawled painfully to 
my feet. I couldn’t realize at first where I was or 
what was going on. It was just getting daylight, a 
lovely morning, and as I looked about the yard, try- 
ing to locate myself, my eyes fell on the coal train, 
and memory returned with a rush. 

I asked the fireman what it was he had said to me; 
he repeated it, and I answered sleepily, “ All right.” 

Seven was the midnight train out of Chicago, and 
if she had gone, there would certainly be ample time 
for us to get in before the first morning train ar- 
rived. I was too dead to look at my watch, so I 
took the fireman’s word for it, whistled for the 
switch two or three times, and as nobody showed up, 
I gave her a little steam to stretch the train out, and 
then reversing, gave her an everlasting set-back on 
them, at the same time calling for the switch. I did 
this three times before the fireman, who was watch- 
ing back on his side, said that somebody was coming. 
Up came the conductor, mad as a hornet, wanted to 
know what in h — I was trying to do. “Trying to 
wake you up so we can get out of here. You was in 
a terrible pucker to go last night when I wasn’t able 
to, but now I’m ready.” 

“ Well, you needn’t smash everything all to pieces, 
jest cause you’re ready ! The first time you set back 
on ’em you upsot the stove, an’ all the pipe an’ fire 
was rollin’ round in the caboose, an’ then while we 
was tryin’ to pick it up an’ git the fire out, you come 


FIFTY-TWO HOURS ON DUTY 1 85 

back twice more, an’ broke all our dishes an’ sot a 
lot of our clo’es afire. I don’t see nothin’ so al- 
mighty smart about that — are ye ready ter go ? ” 

“Yes, yes ! get that gate open and let us out; have 
ye got a flag out ? ” 

“I’ll tend ter the flag.” And so, grumbling about 
the damage in his caboose, he opened the switch, and 
we were soon jouncing along at a fairly good gait. 
I was still sleepy and dead ; had to keep my head 
out in the sharp morning air to keep awake at all. 
Arrived at a water-station about half-way, I told the 
fireman he had better fill the tank, as there could 
hardly be enough in it to take us through. While 
I was oiling, the conductor came up and asked if I 
was going to sidetrack there. I looked at him a full 
minute before I could get it through my head what 
he was driving at. Then I told him, “No, certainly 
not ; why should I sidetrack here ? ” 

“How fur ye goin’ fer seven ?” 

“All the way.” 

“ What time’s she due here ? ” 

“ Fifty-seven.” 

“ What time ye got now ! ” 

I looked at my watch ; it was forty-eight. I asked 
the conductor if we were clear of the switch. 

“Yes.” 

“ Have you got it open ? ” 

“Yes.” 

“Well, gimme a signal.” 

I jumped on the engine, and with the conductor 


1 86 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

giving a back-up signal, I jolted those cars into the 
siding fully as fast as it is safe to back over a frog, 
and called the flag just in time to prevent seven’s 
engineer from getting a sight of it, though he saw 
the man, and told me afterwards that he “guessed” 
I hadn’t been in the switch “more ’n a week.” 

Then the fireman and I had a little argument as to 
what it was that he saw when he thought seven had 
passed us in the yard. As I was now fairly well 
awake, I was able to figure the time back, and the 
only passenger train on the road at that time was one 
going the other way. After I had proved it by the 
time table, so that there was no doubt about it, he 
finally admitted that “ By gum, he guessed mebbe I 
was right.” While he had been boring the flues, he 
had also been figuring in his mind as to what would 
be the best time for us to leave, and decided that if 
we followed seven we would be all right, which was 
perfectly correct ; then, with his mind full of seven, 
he got down to put away his flue-rod, and hearing a 
train go by, thought, of course, it must be seven. 
This incident taught me never to take anybody’s 
word for anything that I could verify for myself. 

“Well,” said I, “we’ve only got about twenty 
miles farther to go, and I do hope we’ll live to land 
this train in the yard — I’ve been with it so long that 
I take a kind of fatherly interest in it.” 

It would seem as if that most unlovable damsel, 
“ Misfortune,” had at last tired of worrying us ; for 
after seven got away, we proceeded to our destination 


FIFTY-TWO HOURS ON DUTY 


187 


without further mishap, shoved the train away, and 
gave up the engine to the hostler. Having been 
fifty-two hours on her without rest (for the short 
spell of comparative quiet in the yard could not be 
so termed), I entered on the register this request, 
“Have been fifty-two hours on duty. Do not call 
me until I have had eight hours’ sleep, — 9.30 a.m.” 
I then crawled slowly and painfully over to the hotel 
and went to bed. 

I was so completely fagged out, that it was some 
little time before my aching back would allow me to 
sleep. I had just dropped off when I was rudely 
shaken by the caller, and saluted with “ Hey ! hey ! 
are ye awake now ? Come, I’ve been callin’ ye fer 
ten minutes ; you’re wanted for a stock train. Hurry 
up now ; your engine is all ready ; train’s standing on 
main track waiting fer ye.” When I got my wits 
collected so as to realize who I was, and who he was, 
and what he was talking about, I asked him the time. 
“Ten-fifteen.” 

“ What ! have I only been forty-five minutes off of 
that engine ? ” 

“That’s all.” 

Without another word I tumbled back on the 
pillow and pulled the bedclothes over my head, but 
he understood his business ; he had been calling 
unwilling railroaders for four years, and wouldn’t be 
denied. For a while he shook, and pleaded with me, 
and then realizing the seriousness of the case, he 
snatched off the bedclothes. That was the last straw. 


i88 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


I jumped out of bed and made a dive for him ; but he 
had often seen that done before, and was outside the 
door before I could reach him, and with a parting 
shot through the crack of the door, “ Hurry up now ; 
they’re waitin’ fer ye,” he left. 

I gathered up my bedclothes and again crawled 
uncomfortably into bed, the clothes somehow resolv- 
ing themselves into inconvenient knots and lumps ; 
whereby my extremities and certain prominent parts 
of my anatomy were exposed to the disagreeable tem- 
perature of the contract-built, well-ventilated hotel 
bedroom ; but I was too sleepy and inert to attempt 
to straighten out the tangle, so I lay and shivered 
miserably, while a more or less well-defined idea 
oozed through my soggy brain, that I hadn’t seen 
the last of that caller, for he had a reputation which 
he had built up under most discouraging circum- 
stances in a difficult business. 

Sure enough; just as I was beginning to get my 
ideas into a pleasant state of haziness once more, the 
door was fired open with a bang, an Indian yell 
greeted my outraged sense of hearing, and rolling 
over, I beheld the exultant countenance of mine 
enemy, safely outside the door this time, and hold- 
ing up for my inspection a sheet of dirty yellow 
colored paper, which I knew was a telegraph form. 
“Read that now, an’ see if ye’ll get up or not.” 

I took the paper and read : “ Engineer M , 

don’t you delay this stock train. W. S. B.” 

A combined order and threat from the train- 


FIFTY-TWO HOURS ON DUTY 1 89 

despatcher signed with the division superintendent’s 
initials, which are always used by the despatcher on 
duty, — a peremptory order, to be unquestioningly 
obeyed. I borrowed the caller’s pencil and wrote 
underneath the order : “ W. S. B., — I have been 
fifty-two hours on duty, am unfit to take stock train 
or any other train. J. B. M.” I handed it to the 
caller, and telling him that if he disturbed me again 
for any reason, even though the hous£ should be 
afire, I would brain him, I once more retired ; and 
although I had no doubt that I had signed my 
death-warrant, I slept the sleep of the utterly weary. 

In answer to the expected letter, I called on the 
superintendent when I returned, and got my medi- 
cine, — thirty days suspension for refusing to obey 
an order. I was lucky to get off so. He told me 
that all that saved my job was the fact that an 
engine came in off the branch opportunely and 
brought the stock train through. The fact that I 
was physically incapacitated did not justify me in 
the least in refusing that order with his initials 
attached. I have always had an idea, however, that 
my troublesome habit of appealing to the general 
manager had as much to do with preventing my dis- 
charge as the arrival of the engine off the branch. 

It was while I was hauling freight that the ad- 
vance guard of that countless horde of tramps who 
now infest the country made their appearance on 
our road. I shall never forget the first one that I 
saw ; for his personality has always remained in my 


190 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

memory as the Moses who was leading the march 
of the hungry tatterdemalions of the east to the 
promised land of the great, indefinite “west.” 

It was a fine, moonlight night, and I had left the 
other end of the division with a heavy train. Five 
miles out there was a steep though short grade that 
we considered ourselves lucky to surmount without 
“ doubling ” ; but as I had managed to get a little 
work done on my engine last trip, — boiler washed, 
leaky tubes rolled out, etc., — she was steaming finely, 
and she walked that train up the grade, slowly, to be 
sure, but gallantly for all that. Just as she pitched 
over the brow of the hill and began to gather head- 
way a bit, I fancied I saw something move, out on 
the front end. At first I attributed it to the moving 
of a shadow in the bright moonlight and the gentle 
rolling and pitching of the engine; but as I natu- 
rally kept my eye on it, I presently saw a human 
foot rise for an instant into the bright, yellow moon- 
light and drop again out of sight behind the steam- 
chest. 

Disquieting visions of a mangled body on my 
front end, — that I had “ picked up,” somewhere, 
some unfortunate gasping his life out in semi-con- 
sciousness, or, worse yet, a badly but not fatally 
injured person struggling, perhaps, to make his pres- 
ence known, — gave me a creepy sensation for a 
minute ; and then, without saying a word to the 
fireman, I cut her back close to the centre, eased 
off my throttle, that she might not gain too rapidly 


FIFTY-TWO HOURS ON DUTY 191 

in speed, and went out on the running-board. There 
was surely a body there lying crosswise and close up 
to the smoke-box door ; I could see the legs stretched 
out motionless on my side ; hanging on to the hand- 
rail, I stepped down on the steam-chest, and peered 
as far round as I could ; there lay a fellow at full 
length, his head resting on his hand, riding along 
comfortably and smoking an old stub of a clay pipe. 

“ Hey ! ” said I ; “ hey ! ” 

He turned his head leisurely in my direction, but 
made no answer nor did he appear to move. The 
train was now gathering headway, and I feared every 
moment that he would be pitched off and ground 
under the wheels ; so I shouted to him to get up 
and come into the cab. He very leisurely straight- 
ened himself up and followed me back, much to 
the evident surprise of the fireman, who had anx- 
iously peered out to see what had become of me. 

I told him to sit on the box behind me, which he 
did without a word ; having got the train adjusted to 
its gait, and having a long stretch of good running- 
ground ahead, I turned and asked him how he came 
on my front end. 

“ Got on when you was cornin’ slow up the hill.” 

“ Where are you going ? ” 

“ West.” 

“West? Well, where is west? Some people call 
this west.” 

“ Oh, I dunno ; west is all I know ; when I started 
I thought I’d go west somewheres an’ grow up with 


192 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


the country, but I’ve ’bout concluded not to bother; 
the further I go, the more I git disgusted with every- 
thing. I see so many men that have had just about 
the same experience that I have, an’ they all say 
they’ll never be any man’s slave ag’in, an’ I believe 
they’re ’bout right. What does the man have that 
works, anyway ? In the first place he’s got to hum- 
ble himself an’ worry his everlastin’ soul-case out to 
git a job, an’ then when he’s got it, his trouble’s only 
just begun: bosses never' know when a man has 
done enough. The first thing it’s a reduction of pay, 
or a lay off, or somebody offers to do it for less 
money ; an’ just as you’ve got yerself all settled down, 
to be a little comfortable, an’ makin’ plans for the 
future, you’re on the outs ag’in ; your dough-dish is 
upset, an’ then there’s more worry an’ brain-fag, to 
hunt up another master ; for that’s just what it 
amounts to. An’ what do you git for it ? Stable 
room an’ fodder — same’s a car horse ; that’s all. Now 
I’m a tramp, no livin’ man’s my boss ; nor I won’t 
take a word o’ clack from nobody neither — except 
policemen in the cities. I don’t have to worry about 
where my grub is cornin’ from. If what I git at one 
house don’t suit me, all I got to do is throw it away 
an’ go to the next. I git plenty to eat, just as good 
as what other folks has ; when I want clothes, all 
I’ve got to do is ask for ’em. I don’t git the best, of 
course, but then I don’t have to go much into 
society, and rags are always in fashion ; an’ you bet 
your sweet life I don’t sleep outdoors, nor allow my 


FIFTY-TWO HOURS ON DUTY 


193 


health to be endangered by exposure to the elements. 
No, sir; I take good care of myself — better ’n I ever 
did in my life before. Why, young man, when I 
look back an’ think of the thirty hard slavish years 
that I put in steamboatin’ back there in the east, 
three hundred and sixty-five days to the year, night 
an’ day, day an’ night, well fed, to be sure, but never 
half sleep enough, scrimpin’ an’ savin’, denyin’ my- 
self all the comforts, an’ most of the necessaries of 
life, so ’s to git ahead, an’ then look at myself an’ see 
what I’ve got to show for it, no wonder that I 
swear by the great god of thieves an’ tramps that I’ll 
never work ag’in.” 

“ Surely,” said I, “ if as you say you worked and 
saved for thirty years, you must have accumulated 
something.” 

He looked steadily out of the window, and smoked 
furiously for some time ; then knocking the ashes out 
of his pipe, he consigned it to some hidden recepta- 
cle in his ragged coat, and turning to me, said in a 
hard voice, and in language that was entirely devoid 
of slang, “ Fifteen months ago, I wouldn’t have sold 
out for five thousand dollars. I went steamboating 
when I was a boy, and, as I said, I worked and 
scrimped. Ten years ago I had a good job and a 
little money. I married the girl that I used to keep 
company with before I left home, and built a little 
house, just outside the city where I worked. 

“ I wasn’t able to be at home much, but the 
thought of the wife and boy encouraged me to work, 


194 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


and I enjoyed my labor, knowing that it was for 
them. 

“ I worked for one man for fifteen years ; he owned 
a large fleet of steam vessels of all kinds, from little 
bits of tugs to great big excursion boats. He is 
many times a millionnaire, has held high offices in the 
state, and is famed for his philanthropy. The money 
that he spends in charity in any one year would 
make you and me rich for life. 

“ I knew where there was an old steam lighter that 
could be bought cheap, and with a little fixing up be 
made serviceable ; so when I saw a new factory in 
course of erection one day about ten miles out of 
town, I made inquiries, got acquainted with the 
owner, satisfied him that lighterage was cheaper than 
railroad transportation for his goods, and to make a 
long story short, made an agreement with him 
whereby I was to do his work by the month. He 
wouldn’t make any longer agreement, because he 
said that if rates went down, he purposed to have the 
benefit of the lower prices. 

“However, I was satisfied, for I knew I could 
do his work as cheaply as anybody ; so I mortgaged 
my house, and with what money I had in bank 
I bought and fitted up the old lighter. 

“When I resigned my job, my boss was very 
anxious to know the why and wherefore. I told 
him I thought I had a chance to better myself ; and 
he said that although he hated to have his old 
employees leave him, still if I could better myself, 


FIFTY-TWO HOURS ON DUTY 195 

he was glad of it, and if I needed any advice or 
help at any time, to let him know. 

“ I thanked him for his kindness, and started in 
business. I did first rate right from the start, 
made from thirty to fifty dollars a day clear, and 
was looking forward to the time when I should 
have my boat and home both clear of debt. 

“I had only been running the job three weeks, 
when on my return to town one night I received 
a telegram, which read, ‘ Come home at once ; 
Billy drowned.’ That was my boy, the little eight- 
year-old fellow, that I thought more of than I did of 
my immortal soul. I put another captain in charge 
of my boat, and started for home with a heavy 
heart. 

“ Billy had been drowned while fishing for eels 
after dark. He was carried home, and when his 
mother saw her only child brought in dripping, 
his little hands hanging down, she swooned, and 
in falling, upset the tea table with the lamp upon 
it. Instantly the room was ablaze, and it was all 
the neighbors could do to drag the insensible form 
of my wife, fatally burned, out of the house. 

“The house itself, with my child’s remains, was 
totally consumed. A neighbor had sent me the 
news of Billy’s death, thinking it best, I suppose, 
to deal the blow piecemeal. It was midnight when 
I got it, and two hours later when I stood half- 
crazed looking at the black spot on the ground 
where my home had been. 


196 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

“They took me to my wife. She was delirious 
and unrecognizable. She died before daylight, and 
I buried her the same day. I went back to work, 
for my creditors must be paid. The next trip, 
when I returned to town, I met my former em- 
ployer on the street. I thought that, having heard 
of my trouble, he was coming to express sym- 
pathy ; for God knows I needed it badly enough. 

“ He walked up to me, a hard glitter in his eye, 
and said, — 

“‘I hear, Fielding, that you’ve gone into the 
transportation business.’ 

“‘Yes, sir,’ said I; ‘in a small way.’ 

“ ‘ Small or big, you’re in my way ; do you under- 
stand ? I won’t tolerate any competition that I 
can crush, and I can crush you. Make the most 
of your contract, for when your month is up, you’re 
done ; and inside of three months I’ll have your 
hide hanging on the fence.’ 

“When my month expired, my employer said he 
had made other arrangements, and would not need 
my boat. I asked permission to bid for the work. 
He took a paper from his desk, and said, ‘Can 
you underbid that ? ’ It was an offer from my 
former employer to carry his goods three months 
for nothing. 

“The next month I didn’t make money enough 
to pay expenses. The crew libelled the boat for 
their wages. My creditors swarmed round me 
like flies round a dead horse. When I could get 


FIFTY-TWO HOURS ON DUTY 


197 


nothing else, I could get plenty of what I never 
wanted before, — rum. I met my old boss one 
day when I was recovering from a long drunk, and 
asked him for a job. He told me he would have 
me arrested if I ever spoke to him in public again. 
That was the last straw. I snatched a rung from a 
near-by cart, and aimed a murderous blow at him ; 
but in addition to his other accomplishments, he 
was a trained athlete. He wrenched it from me, 
nearly killed me with it, and then sent me to jail 
for three months for attempted atrocious assault 
and battery, while the newspapers printed editorials 
commenting on the dangerous state of society, 
when a gentleman could not run his own business 
to suit himself without taking the risk of a sand- 
bagging from discharged employees. 

“ From the inmates of the workhouse I learned that 
my case was only one of hundreds. Men were sur- 
prised and laughed when they found that I thought 
my experience an unusual one. I had been so busy 
working all my life that I didn’t know anything ; but 
when I came out I had learned a new lesson, and 
now that I have time to observe what is going on in 
the world, I am convinced more and more every day 
that the workhouse philosophers were right : there 
is only a penny a day apiece for them that work 
and them that play ; and they that play get both 
pennies. I tell you, my young friend, it’s getting 
harder and harder for honest men to make a living 
in the east, and it will be the same here before long. 


198 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

When one man gets control of a million dollars he 
can gobble up all the poor men and their earnings, 
that he has a mind to. They can’t help themselves. 
And you mark my words, the time is not far off — 
you will probably live to see it — when the tramps 
will be thicker out here on these prairies than they 
are in the eastern cities now. I guess you’re goin’ 
slow enough, so ’t I kin git off here. I don’t care ter 
go in ter town ter night ; folks might not be expectin’ 
me. Gimme a chew o’ terbaccer ’fore I go. Don’t 
use it, hey ? Good boy ; you’ll git over that all 
right. Wal, never mind. I kin find a cigar stub 
some’ers. So long.” 

I was slowed down to about ten miles per hour, 
entering the yard with its bewildering maze of 
signals and switches. He swung a moment on the 
step, and then dropped off. I glanced back, and 
saw him floundering over a frog ; the corner of the 
head car hit him in the back, and he fell between it 
and the tender. I stopped as soon as possible. We 
extricated the dismembered remains and delivered 
them to the coroner. He was my first tramp, but 
how many times since have I had reason to remem- 
ber his prophecy. In less than two years after that, 
the road was infested with them. The same grade 
where the ex-steamboat captain boarded me that 
night became a favorite resort for such as were 
bound westward, and it was a common occurrence 
for them to board the trains in sufficient numbers to 
enable them to defy the train hands. 


FIFTY-TWO HOURS ON DUTY 


199 


Once a brakeman was thrown off the top of a car 
and killed by them. They frequently had revolvers, 
so that even if they were few, they were able to en- 
force their demands. 


CHAPTER XIII 


HELD UP — ON THE HEAD END OF A PASSENGER 
TRAIN — UNSATISFACTORY DIVIDENDS — A TEN PER 
CENT CUT — FRANK MANLY AND I ORGANIZE THE 
MEN 

One night as I was running along at a good gait, 
crowding the speed limit a little, — for I was trying to 
make a certain siding ahead of the express, — some 
one shook me roughly by the shoulder, and said, 
“ Hey, you ! ” I wondered that the fireman should 
be so energetic in addressing me ; so it was in a fit 
of ill humor that I pulled my head in, and snarling 
out, “What do you want ? ” looked along the barrel 
of a big revolver, and into a pair of fierce eyes under 
the brim of a slouch hat. That was all I could see. 
But it was enough. I had scraped a hole in the 
paint on the gauge lamp globe, to read orders by, 
and the ray of light from it showed me this unpleas- 
ant sight. The cab being all in darkness, the gun 
and eyes appeared as if suspended in space. 

There was also a voice, and it said, “ I want you 
to slack up, right here, so’s we kin git off.” 

“All right, sir,” said I, and I shut right off. I 
reached for the whistle cord to call for brakes, but 
the voice said, “ Hoi’ on, sonny ; none o’ that ; ’tain’t 


200 



♦ * 


“ Looked along the barrel of a big revolver. 


p. 200. 






A TEN PER CENT CUT 


201 


healthy ; ” so I let her roll. “ Git outer the way till 
I see,” said the voice, which, as the fireman had 
opened the door, I could now see belonged to a big, 
square-shouldered six-footer. He took my place at 
the window, and when she had slowed down suffi- 
ciently, I could hear voices in the rear counting one, 
two, three. They were counting themselves as they 
jumped off. The third man, after calling out his 
number, sang out, “ All right.” My friend with the 
ordnance climbed down on the step and dropped off 
without a word, and I went on. Presently the con- 
ductor came ahead to know why I had shut off. I 
told him to let off a gang of tramps. That night the 
express was half an hour late, and passed me in the 
siding, at the rate of seventy miles an hour. 

She had been flagged near where my “tramps” got 
off. One fellow got on the engine, and entertained 
the engineer and fireman, while his three partners 
looted the express car, and took up a collection from 
the passengers. 

After that, all freight engines and cabooses were 
furnished with arms, and as if by magic the tramps 
deserted our road for nearly a year, by which time the 
guns had become lost or stolen or useless, and gradu- 
ally they returned, soon becoming as pestiferous as 
before. I don’t think any of us would have used our 
arms though ; for there are too many ways that they 
could have retaliated, and the ordinary risks of rail- 
roading are sufficient, without making deadly enemies 
of the countless horde of irresponsible vagabonds. 


202 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


Owing to the efforts of a firm of real estate specu- 
lators, business began to boom on the road to such 
an extent that two new suburban trains were put on, 
calling for three passenger engineers, one for each 
engine, and one to swing between them, and take 
part of a day from each, as the miles and hours were 
too long. 

I was one of the lucky three, and at last found my- 
self in charge of the head end of a passenger train. 
The change was like coming out of the workhouse, 
to sit in a parlor for a living. The engines were 
kept clean, of course, the time was not fast, nor were 
the trains heavy, and every month I could tell before- 
hand just what my pay would be, unless some unfore- 
seen accident occurred. Being the youngest, I had 
the relief. That didn’t suit me very well, for an en- 
gineer always wants to own his engine, fix things to 
suit himself, and have no one to interfere with her. 
However, it was so very much better than any job 
I had ever had, that for some time I thought I had 
reached the very acme of my ambition, and would 
never ask for anything more ; but I had not been on 
the train six months before a condition arose that 
was as unpleasant as it was unexpected. It seems 
that for a couple of years previously the road had 
not been paying satisfactory dividends, so the board 
of directors unseated the president and general man- 
ager, and filled those offices with others, pledged to 
retrenchment. The new policy made itself felt in 
our department at once. 


A TEN PER CENT CUT 


203 


The shop crews were reduced, and even those who 
were retained were put on short time. A howl went 
up at once ; it was impossible to get work done on 
engines and cars, breakdowns on the road became the 
rule instead of, as heretofore, the exception ; con- 
ductors and engineers had to do most of the repair- 
ing when in the sidetrack. The want of links and 
pins kept the train crews on the lookout for “iron.” 
As brake-shoes were never renewed while a ves- 
tige remained, several wrecks were caused by inability 
to stop trains, any one of which cost the company 
more than all the brake-shoes used on the road in 
a year, and for once “no brakes” became, if not a 
valid, at least a reasonable excuse. 

Cheap oil that would not lubricate cut out journals 
and crankpins, and besides the time lost on the road 
the cars and engines had to be laid up for want of 
shop men to repair them. Waste was no longer 
issued, so that the engines became coated with grease 
and dirt, making it next to impossible to detect 
a fracture in any of the parts. Under this reform 
administration, the quality of the fuel became so 
depreciated that it was impossible to make time, the 
first result of which was that engineers and firemen 
were suspended, and the next, that business fell off, 
for people would neither ship their goods nor travel 
on a road where the service was so unreliable. 

Within tfi^ee months two engines were wrecked, 
and their engineers killed by broken parallel rods 
tearing up through the cabs, like huge iron flails, 


204 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


and flogging them to death. In the suit for dam- 
ages, brought by their widows, as it was proven that 
the men had reported the necessity of having the 
brasses in those rods reduced for weeks, but there 
were no men to do it, the company had to pay 
heavy damages. A broken driving-wheel tire ditched 
a passenger train — more damages. 

Discontent was rampant ; grumbling and cursing 
at the management became the order of the day. 
There was not a mile of safe track on the whole 
line. The wrecking train was hardly ever idle, and 
on more than one occasion it became necessary to 
send another train out to bring her in. 

While we were laboring under these aggravating 
inconveniences, an order was posted on the bulletin 
board to the effect that after the first of the next 
month, all employees receiving one dollar and a half 
per day, or over, would be cut ten per cent until 
further notice. 

This included engineers, firer^en, conductors, and 
brakemen. The men gathered in knots and dis- 
cussed the cut. The new management was cordially 
damned, and the question raised, “What shall we 
do about it ? ” As there appeared to be no prospect 
of the men arriving at an understanding by such 
disunited methods, Frank Manly, who had remained 
my firm friend and particular chum ever since the 
fight we had with Hussey about promotion, called 
for me one evening, and, during a long walk, we dis- 
cussed the troubles existing on the road, and cud- 



} * 


“The wrecking train was hardly ever idle 


p. 204 




A TEN PER CENT CUT 


205 


gelled our brains for a remedy, with the result that 
we agreed that nothing could be done until all 
employees who were affected by the cut could be 
got together to argue the question, adopt resolu- 
tions, and send a representative committee to the 
front with them. 

Near the round-house there was a hotel, which 
depended almost entirely on the patronage of the 
railroaders, the upper floor of which was a large hall, 
used for balls, concerts, and so forth. We decided 
that we should be perfectly safe in calling a meeting 
there without consulting Schroeder (the proprietor). 
As it was not desirable that we should appear as 
ringleaders in the matter, we adjourned to my room, 
and drew up two notices, as follows : — 

NOTICE. 

All employees of this road, engaged in train service, who are 
dissatisfied with bulletin order No. 3, of June 14th, which orders 
a reduction of ten per cent in all salaries of $1.50, or over, are 
requested to meet at Schroeder’s assembly room on the evening 
of July 1st, at 8.15, sharp. By order of 

The Committee. 

These we printed with pen and ink, so as to make 
it impossible for any one to trace our handwriting ; 
for, never having written anything of importance 
before, we had an exaggerated idea of our present 
undertaking. 

We dated the meeting three days ahead, to give 
the men who were at the other end of the division 
a chance to see the notice on their return, and so 


20 6 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


get all hands to talking about it. Frank was to go 
out at twelve o’clock that night, so it was agreed that 
he should make it his business to post one copy on 
the round-house bulletin board, while I would hand 
the other to a conductor whom we felt that we could 
trust and get him to do the same on their board. 

The next day excitement ran high. Who were 
“the committee”? Who had appointed them? 
“ Are ye goin’ to the meetin’ ? ” We began to feel 
a little alarmed at the evident magnitude of the 
movement we had started, but we met in a secluded 
place at the other end of the division next day, and 
bolstered each other’s courage by declaring that we 
were delighted with the prospects of an enthusiastic 
meeting, and promised each other to see the thing 
through now that it had started so auspiciously. I 
saw Schroeder that night and promised to take up a 
collection to pay for the room and light, guaranteeing 
to make good myself any shortage that might result. 

When the time arrived, Frank and I strolled down 
to the hotel. Jake had faithfully performed his part, 
the room was brilliantly illuminated and filled with 
chairs, but with the exception of ourselves, not a 
railroader was in sight, although it was always a 
favorite lounging-place, and for some time past had 
been especially well patronized by the disgruntled. 
Half-past eight — nine o’clock — half-past nine — this 
would never do ; we each started in a different direc- 
tion to see if we could round up enough men to 
make a showing, agreeing to return in half an hour^ 


A TEN PER CENT CUT 


207 


I went directly to the conductors’ “hangout,” a 
large waiting-room off the despatched office. I 
found fifteen or twenty men — conductors and brake- 
men — discussing the proposed meeting. I entered 
into the conversation and soon found that not a man 
of them dared take part in it, or even express him- 
self in favor of it, for fear that he would lose his job. 
I soon assumed a leading part in the conversation, 
and they grouped themselves around me, while I 
gave them an exhortation that would have done 
credit to a camp meeting. I told them that we were 
being robbed of our hard earnings, in order that our 
wages might be used to pay dividends to wealthy 
stockholders, who had never strained a muscle or 
shed a drop of sweat to make the road a success, 
while we had been doing that very thing for years. 
I told them that if the road was not a financial suc- 
cess, it was no fault of ours, and we were not obliged 
to pay for the blunders of the management. When 
the road was paying big dividends they never thought 
of sharing them with us by raising our pay, but any 
excuse was good enough for a reduction. 

I told them that while the amount taken from us 
would impoverish us greatly, it would not add to the 
already luxurious living of the stockholders a single 
case of champagne, or a new suit of livery for their 
flunkies. I reminded them that this same unprac- 
tical new management had, by their penny-wise, 
and pound-foolish operation of the road, lost patron- 
age, and incurred costly damage suits, which they 


208 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


now called upon us — who on account of that same 
silly management were working harder than ever 
before — to pay for out of our wages, and to the 
knee-quaking argument that any man who took part 
in the movement would be blacklisted, discharged, 
and damned forevermore, I told them, that if only 
half a dozen had the manhood to stand out and pro- 
test against the outrage, I had no doubt that hell 
would be their portion. “ But,” said I, “if we all turn 
out and make a unanimous demonstration, our very 
numbers will protect us, for they can’t discharge a 
whole division. Certainly no man has so far made 
himself so conspicuous in this movement as I have 
right here to-night, and I am not afraid to go to that 
meeting, or to act on a committee, and tell the presi- 
dent just what I have told you. Now then” — look- 
ing at my watch — “ the engineers and firemen are 
waiting for you at the hall ; they are determined not 
to submit to this reduction without a protest ; I have 
been sent here to ask you to cooperate with us in 
righting this great wrong. Remember that in the 
meeting you will have all the chance in the world to 
express your opinions, and to win as many to your 
way of thinking as you can, and if you are dissatis- 
fied with the action taken, you can withdraw and 
refuse to give it your sanction. I ask that every 
man here who desires to have his wages reduced, or 
who thinks he ought to be made to contribute to 
a fund to make good the losses due to bungling 
management, to hold up his hand.” 


A TEN PER CENT CUT 


209 


A careful inspection failed to reveal a single hand 
raised. “ That’s enough,” said I ; “ come on, we’re 
late now.” And at the head of my partly enthusiastic 
and partly weak-kneed recruits I started for the hall. 
During my impromptu remarks, the crowd had more 
than trebled, men dropping in every minute from the 
cabooses and hotels, so that as far as numbers were 
concerned, I had a crowd of sixty or seventy men ; 
but I knew them, and was not over-elated at my 
success, for the genuine railroader, although he would 
like exceedingly to possess the earth and the fulness 
thereof, is so everlastingly afraid of losing his job, 
that he submits to impositions that would cause a 
revolt in a Chinese laundry, contenting himself with 
damning the company in a low voice from behind the 
coal-pile, or in the seclusion of his home, while a nod 
of recognition from the division superintendent, or 
the mention of his first name by the master me- 
chanic, sets his heart to fluttering with ardent self- 
congratulations. 

On the way to the hall, several old gray-headed, 
chin-whiskered fellows, veteran employees, sur- 
rounded me, and asked me what I was “goin’ to 
dew?” They advised me to be “ mighty careful,” 
or the first thing I knew I would be out of a job ; 
they guessed that I would find before I was through 
with it, that the road belonged to the company, and 
that they would run it to suit themselves, for all of 
me and my crowd. 

“ All right,” said I ; “ I have no objection to their 


p 


210 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


running the road to suit themselves, but I’ll be 
hanged if I’m a slave, and when it comes to a ques- 
tion affecting my wages, I propose to be heard.” 

This sentiment met with vociferous approval from 
the younger and radical element, but the conserva- 
tives shook their heads, and wisely predicted that I 
should find out that I couldn’t dictate to a railroad 
company. 

As we approached the hall I was filled with anxi- 
ety, wondering how Frank had succeeded with the 
engineers and firemen. There were fifteen or twenty 
of them standing in a group outside the door, talking 
in a half-frightened way, as if they considered the 
idea of asserting that they had any rights in the 
matter, to be equivalent to high treason. 

My arrival with such a strong body of reinforce- 
ments seemed, however, to hearten them, and when 
I spoke up with an assumption of fearless cheerful- 
ness, saying, “ Step right inside, gentlemen, the 
meeting is about to commence,” they obeyed with 
alacrity. 

I stepped to the chair, rapped on the table with 
my knuckles, asking them to please come to order, 
and remove their hats. I then stated briefly why 
the meeting had been called, told them there was no 
necessity for any man committing himself any farther 
than he saw fit to do ; but added that, personally, I 
was in favor of resisting the reduction with all the 
power at our command ; for, I warned them, if we 
submitted to this initial stab at our inalienable rights 


A TEN PER CENT CUT 


2 1 1 


as American citizens to have a voice in the adjust- 
ment of our rate of pay, we might expect it to 
be quickly followed by further encroachments. I 
warmed with my subject, reminding them that in 
defence of a similar cause, our forefathers had shed 
their blood and laid down their lives at Lexington 
and Bunker Hill. 

When the applause following this patriotic out- 
burst had subsided, I moved the election of Mr. 
Frank Manly as permanent chairman. The motion 
was seconded by a dozen at once, and, seeing Frank 
getting on his feet to decline, I put the question, 
and he was unanimously elected viva voce. I called 
on the oldest engineer and conductor present by 
name to escort Mr. Manly to the chair, and was 
pleased to observe the alacrity with which they 
obeyed. They were already beginning to feel that 
wholesome esprit de corps , without which no move- 
ment can succeed. 

As I resigned the chair to Frank, he said in an 
undertone, “What in thunder did you do that for? 
I don’t know how to preside at a meeting.” 

“Sh! be still,” said I. “You know as much 
about it as any of us. Accept all motions that are 
made, let them debate as long as they have a mind 
to, and, when nobody has any more to say, put it 
to a vote and announce it lost or carried, whichever 
way you think it ought to go.” Frank grinned 
dubiously, and I left him, taking a seat in the 
audience. 


212 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


I had no sooner taken my seat than a great buzz- 
ing ensued, — every man talking eagerly to his 
neighbor ; so, seeing there was no prospect of ac- 
complishing anything unless somebody made a mo- 
tion, I rose and moved that we proceed to organize 
by electing officers. As the meeting readily assented 
to this, but made no attempt to do it, I found it 
necessary to nominate a secretary and sergeant-at- 
arms, explaining what their duties were. We soon 
became organized ; the sergeant-at-arms was directed 
to keep the door closed, but to admit all employees 
of the road and no others. It was encouraging to 
observe that the door was kept pretty constantly 
on the swing, admitting men ; it was evident that 
the news had got abroad and was already exciting 
interest. In order to get the business started, I 
now moved that a committee be elected, — consist- 
ing of one engineer, one fireman, one conductor, a 
brakeman, and switchman, — to call on the general 
manager and protest against the reduction. This 
had the desired effect, — it started debate ; but the 
great trouble now was to keep them in order. They 
all wanted to talk at once; and seeing that Frank 
was perplexed by his unfamiliar duties, I went to 
him and told him to explain that they must address 
the chair, and only the person recognized could 
speak, and that he must not be interrupted until 
through. Frank begged me to take the chair, say- 
ing that he didn’t understand it and didn’t want it ; 
but I told him that he was the duly elected chair- 


A TEN PER CENT CUT 


213 


man and was doing all right. While we were dis- 
cussing this point, an old freight conductor arose 
in the rear of the hall and roared out : “ Mr. Chair- 
man ! what’s that man doin’ up there with you ? 
Seems ter me he’s takin’ a good deal on himself. 
I guess we’re all jest as much interested as he is, 
ain’t we ? I don’t want no one-man business here ; 
let him come down out o’ that ! ” Although the 
remarks were not flattering, I was glad to hear 
them, for it showed that an interest was being 
taken in the proceedings. 

We made but little real progress that night be- 
yond organizing and exciting debate. The motion 
to elect a committee did not reach a vote. Shortly 
before adjourning, a slight ripple of excitement was 
caused by the round-house foreman and yard-master 
seeking admission. The sergeant-at-arms, big with 
the importance of his new office, slammed the door 
in their faces, admonishing them to get out. Frank 
asked what the trouble was, and Mike replied : “ A 
couple o’ spies, your honor, tryin’ ter git in here an’ 
find out what’s goin’ on.” While he was making 
his report to the chair, the “ spies ” were pounding 
on the door. I made a motion that, as they were 
employees and subject to the cut as well as our- 
selves, they be admitted and requested to join us. 

A hot debate ensued for a few minutes. We 
didn’t want any petty officers spying on us and 
reporting our acts to the bosses, they said; but I 
reminded them that as we intended to report our acts 


214 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


to the general manager ourselves, they could not 
possibly do us any harm, and besides if we refused to 
admit them, they would go away in anger and report 
that we were evidently doing something that we were 
afraid to have known. It was finally agreed that a 
committee of three should interview them and decide. 

I was appointed on the committee. 

We found the two gentlemen in the anteroom in 
rather bad humor; we told them the object of the 
meeting, and asked if they were in sympathy with 
the movement. They said that they didn’t relish a 
reduction of pay any more than ourselves, but wanted 
to know how we were going to help it ? We told 
them that that was a matter for the men to decide 
for themselves, and that we had not got as far as 
that yet. They finally accepted our invitation to 
come in and take part in the meeting, under the 
assurance that they would be allowed to withdraw if 
the action of the majority failed to meet with their 
approval. Shortly after this the meeting adjourned 
until the next evening. 

The next day excitement ran high on the road. 
The news quickly spread to the other divisions, that 
the men on the Chicago division were organizing to 
resist the reduction. On our division the passenger 
crews, both of engines and trains, who had taken but 
little part in the meeting, began to ask questions, and 
offer advice. The passenger man, conductor or 
engineer, having passed through the severe prelimi- 
nary training of the freight service, and reached the 


A TEN PER CENT CUT 


215 


summit of his calling, is always a conservative. He 
has arrived at the railroad man’s “easy street,” and 
he knows that if he loses that passenger train, it will 
be years, if ever, before he will get another. He 
doesn’t want to lose the best job he ever had, know- 
ing that besides the uncertainty of getting another 
job of any kind, there is the positive fact that he will 
not get another passenger train without working his 
way drearily through the freight business, and one 
experience on freight is enough to satisfy the crav- 
ings of any man, even though he were a human hog. 

They are not so very much to be blamed, these 
passenger men ; for human nature is weak, and we 
have no right to demand that every man shall be a 
self-sacrificing martyr. Even with a twenty-five per 
cent reduction, they would make a better and easier 
living than they could pounding an old freight train 
on some other road. 

I was up the road when the next meeting occurred, 
and Frank was only able to stay long enough to 
initiate his successor into the mysteries of control- 
ling the turbulent elements of which the meeting 
was composed. 

The entire evening was used up in futile arguments, 
recriminations, and personalities, and finished up 
with a fight among a half-dozen brakemen. Several 
chairs were broken, and the landlord refused to allow 
us to enter the hall again until he was paid for his 
furniture. A hasty collection satisfied his claim, and 
once more we renewed our deliberations. Frank 


21 6 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


made an excellent opening speech, in which he de- 
plored the lost time, and assured them that he would 
keep order if he had to personally eject every man 
from the hall. His speech had the desired effect, 
and we got to work at once. I started in to nomi- 
nate members for the committee, and was both sur- 
prised and disgusted at the unanimity with which the 
honor was declined. Axiom : The average railroad 
man would rather not serve on a committee for fear 
he will lose his job. 

At last an old fellow jumped up after I had nomi- 
nated half a dozen unwilling candidates, and bawled 
out, “ Sa-ay ! you’ve nominated about everybody in 
the room to serve on this committee, an’ now by 
gum I nominate you.” There was a roar of laughter 
at this, and as soon as it subsided, I turned to the 
chairman, and said, “ I accept.” This brought down 
the house ; when the cheering was over I nominated 
the previous speaker, and amid more noise he ac- 
cepted. After this we had but little trouble in com- 
pleting our committee. As chairman I demanded the 
most explicit instructions, declining on behalf of my- 
self and fellow-committeemen to assume the respon- 
sibility of formulating the demands to be made on 
the company. 

While this subject was under debate the sergeant- 
at-arms in answer to an alarm at the outer door, re- 
ported to the chairman, that two committees from the 
other two divisions of the road sought admission. 
They were admitted amid great enthusiasm, and 



“ * Sa-ay ! you’ve nominated about everybody.’ ” — p. 216 
























































A TEN PER CENT CUT 


21 ^ 

stated that they wished to take part with us in any 
proceedings which we might take, looking to the 
righting of the wrong that had been done to all 
hands. 

At first it seemed that we should have to recon- 
struct our grievance committee in order that it should 
contain representatives of the entire road ; but as 
they assured us that the men whom they represented 
were willing to go to any length to defeat the obnox- 
ious arts of the new management, it was finally 
agreed that they should have a voice, and a vote 
equal to two-thirds of the whole on the instruction 
of the committee, and in return, they would delegate 
our committee to represent their interests. As it 
was getting late, and the matter had been pretty 
thoroughly discussed, the meeting was adjourned for 
twenty-four hours, to enable the crews now on the 
road to have their say. 

The next evening the full instructions were 
adopted, and were as follows : The committee were 
to call on the president or his representative at the 
earliest opportunity, and request that the rates of 
pay existing previous to the issuing of the ten per 
cent order be restored. They were to make no 
threats ; to use only such arguments as they could 
think of; and to accept no compromise. Having 
carried out these instructions, they were to report 
back to the meeting. 


CHAPTER XIV 


IN THE PRESIDENT’S OFFICE — CURSING OUR ENTHU- 
SIASTIC FOLLY THE DREAD OF DISCHARGE A 

FOXY OLD DUCK — RETALIATIONS OFFICERS PAID 

IN FULL — WE STRIKE 

The next day at eleven o’clock, we sat dressed in 
our best clothes in the anteroom of the president’s 
office, waiting for an answer to our request for an 
audience. I have not the slightest doubt that every 
man on that committee fully believed that he had 
worked his last day on the road ; I know I did. 

Presently the door of the spacious private office 
was thrown wide open, and we were requested to 
enter. Hats in hands, and hearts in mouths, we filed 
in, I, by virtue of my office as chairman, at the head. 
Standing in the middle of the room, both hands in 
his pockets, his feet spread wide apart, and with an 
extremely fragrant cigar cocked at an angle of forty- 
five towards his left eye, was a tall, gray, spare man, 
plainly but expensively dressed, who regarded us 
rather superciliously as we awkwardly drew up before 
him. This was the president, the highest railroad 
functionary that any of us had ever seen. We firmly 
believed his power to be greater than that of any 
Czar. When we at last got ourselves shuffled into 
218 


WE STRIKE 219 

some kind of order before him, he ran his eye keenly 
along our rank, and said, — 

“Well, gentlemen, I understand that you are a 
committee, representing the employees of my road. 
Which is your chairman ? ” 

I told him that I was the chairman. 

“ Ah, yes ! what is your name, please ? ” 

I told him. 

“ And your occupation ? ” 

“Engineer.” 

“Yes ? very well ; now you may introduce your com- 
mittee, please, giving their names and occupations.” 

As I called out their names, I could see each indi- 
vidual committeeman shrink and shrivel under the 
keen critical glance of the magnate, who evidently 
regarded us as imbeciles or freaks, an odd lot to be 
studied a bit, wheedled into subjection if possible, 
but under no circumstances to be allowed to inter- 
fere with his financial policy. 

And the committee ! I know that every mother’s 
son of them was cursing the enthusiastic folly that 
caused him to accept the appointment. 

There was no applauding constituency here to 
keep their spirits up ; only that grim old financier 
in the foreground, who could discharge us all as 
easily as he could take the next puff of his cigar. 

And here I may as well explain to the general 
reader why it is that railroad men have such a great 
dread of discharge, for it is a fact that they fear it 
more than they do death. The average railroader 


220 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


has started at the business as a boy, consequently 
he has never known anything but railroading. The 
first lesson he learned was, that the general manager, 
if not the president, started in just where he is now. 
The next, that every day that he remains in the com- 
pany’s employ he is one day nearer to a better job ; 
for promotion is the rule on all railroads. The next, 
that if he is discharged, he becomes almost absolutely 
ineligible for employment in the railroad business; 
as, when seeking employment, he must furnish his 
pedigree ; and even if he is employed to fill an urgent 
vacancy, the telegraph immediately asks the superin- 
tendent of the road from whence he came, not “ why 
was this man discharged ? ” but “ have you any ob- 
jection to our employing him ? ” If the answer is 
in the affirmative, the instant that his services can 
be dispensed with he is notified of that fact; also, 
should he be allowed to remain in the new situation, 
it is bound to be a lower grade in the service than 
that from which he was discharged, and as promotion 
is exceedingly slow, owing to the very fact that the 
men hang so tenaciously to their positions, — never 
under any circumstances resigning, he has to look 
forward to the cheerful prospect of years of hard 
service before he can regain a position equivalent 
to that from which he was discharged, probably for 
no fault of his own. 

Then, again, from the very nature of their em- 
ployment, they are usually compelled to live isolated 
from the general community ; near the round-houses, 


WE STRIKE 


221 


shops, and yards where they are employed. Being 
steady, hard-working men, with tolerably regular in- 
comes, and the hope of permanent employment and 
promotion, they are induced to mortgage their sala- 
ries for years in advance to build homes for them- 
selves and families ; and, on account of their hazardous 
calling, they usually carry all the life and accident in- 
surance that they are able to, at enormously heavy 
rates. Consequently, discharge, which usually upsets 
all these plans for the future welfare of those depend- 
ent on him, generally finds the railroad man with 
only such ready money as is left from his last month’s 
pay, after deducting the amounts due on his home 
and policy, and with the prospect before him of hav- 
ing to go hundreds and even thousands of miles to 
get another job. The home, on which he has been 
paying every cent that he could spare for ye&rs, 
must be sacrificed to the sharks, who are always on 
the lookout for just such bargains; while he, fortu- 
nate if after months of search he obtains employ- 
ment in an inferior position, and at reduced pay, has 
to work, and save, and scrimp for months, in order 
to forward enough money to the family to keep them 
alive, and at the same time provide a new home for 
them, together with transportation for them and their 
household goods. 

Reduced again to poverty, with a family on his 
hands, is it any wonder that he dreads discharge 
more than he does death ? That, at least, is oblivion. 

The brief ceremony of introduction over, he asked, 


222 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


with a cynical smile, “ Well, gentlemen, what can I 
do for you ? ” I told him our errand, and he asked 
if we thought we were more competent to manage 
the property than he was. Remembering that he 
was the president, I lyingly told him no. I told him 
that we didn’t expect or wish to manage the prop- 
erty, but that we were working harder than we had 
ever done before, and getting less pay, which we 
didn’t consider just. 

He said that circumstances, which we would not 
be able to understand, had reduced the earning 
capacity of the road so that it was unable to pay 
the interest on its bonds, and pay the wages we had 
heretofore received. He said that if the investors 
didn’t get satisfactory returns for their money they 
would have the road put in the hands of a receiver; 
and' then we should be paid in scrip, which we should 
have to sell for what anybody chose to give for it. 
Did we think we should be any better off then? 

I said, “We don’t think — ” “Hold on, young 
man,” said he, “you’re doing altogether too much 
of the talking. I want to hear from some of the 
others. Then pointing to the old conductor, who had 
nominated me on the committee, he said, “You’re 
an old railroad man, and, I presume, a man of family ; 
which would you prefer to do, take home your pay 
at the end of the month in cash, and, by sacrificing 
ten per cent for a short time, help to put the road on 
a paying basis, or receive your pay in scrip, which 
you would have to sell for perhaps twenty-five per 


WE STRIKE 


223 


cent, or more, less than its face value, for an indefi- 
nite time ? ” 

“ I can’t pay my bills with what I’m gittin’ now,” 
said the old fellow. 

The president bit his lip, and flushed at the mis- 
carriage of his attempt to flatter the old man into 
becoming his ally, and said with ill-suppressed anger, 
“ I’m afraid the exhorbitant wages that you men have 
been receiving heretofore have induced you to live 
extravagantly ; you should economize ; I have to. 
My salary has been reduced in the same proportion 
as yours, but I don’t go to the board of directors and 
complain ; I accept the situation, and am willing to 
accept even a further reduction, if necessary, to 
enable the road to pull through. You men don't 
understand the situation.” 

“Probably,” said Denny King, the fireman, “you 
get more now than all of us put together.” 

“Yes, I presume I do. Presidents are usually paid 
a higher salary than firemen. But come, I haven’t 
time to stand here talking all day. What do you 
men want ? What is it that you expect me to do ? ” 

“ We were sent here, sir, by all the men engaged 
in train service, to ask you to restore our pay, and 
they will expect an answer from you. What are we 
to tell them ? ” said I. 

“You will tell them that I cannot possibly do so, 
at this time. But as soon as the earnings of the 
road will warrant the extra expense, I will consider 
the matter.” 


224 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


“Then you won’t promise that we shall ever get 
it?” said I. 

He was angry again, we could see that ; but he 
controlled himself, thought a moment, and then said : 
“You may tell them from me that every man, from 
the president down, has been included in this reduc- 
tion of salaries ; that I hope it will be only a temporary 
necessity, and that when the time comes to restore 
them, the restoration shall begin with the lowest- 
salaried employees, and I will be the last to benefit 
by it. I can say no more now. If that isn’t satisfac- 
tory to you, you’ll have to do whatever you see fit. 

Turning his back to us, he sat down and began 
to write. Seeing that there was no more to be said, 
we walked out without so much as saying good-day. 
When we got out on the street, all hands commenced 
to volubly denounce the president. 

“ Say, did you ever see such a foxy old duck ? A 
lot we made by goin’ to him. He’s willing to sub- 
mit to another reduction, if necessary. Of course. 
Why not ? It’s only takin’ the money out of one 
pocket to put it in the other, with him. He’ll Con- 
sider it.’ That ain’t a very rash promise ! Blast 
him ! Who is he, anyway, I wonder ? ” 

“ Oh, some eastern bank president that’s got the 
deadwood on the road.” 

“No, he ain’t. I know all about him. He was a 
conductor on a Boston horse car. He married the 
president’s daughter, and his father-in-law made him 
superintendent. Then it wasn’t but a short time 


WE STRIKE 


225 


till he owned the road, bankrupted the old man, and 
got a divorce from his wife. Now he’s probably 
bought stock enough in this road to get himself 
elected president, and he’s playing a game of freeze- 
out. Nothing would suit him better than to have 
a strike. It would help him to knock the stock down, 
and then he’d buy it in cheap. That’s what he’s 
up to.” 

“Well, d — n him, anyway. May lightnin’ strike 
him, is the best wish I have for him.” 

We made our report to the meeting that even- 
ing, and a furious debate followed. Some were for 
striking at once; others thought we should give the 
president every chance to show his hand before 
resorting to extreme measures. They argued that 
he had not positively refused to restore our pay ; 
that we had no right to brand him as a liar with- 
out proof ; that there might be a great deal more 
in what he said about the road not paying ex- 
penses than we were aware of, and that at any 
rate he was entitled to be believed until proven 
unworthy. Nobody, they said, would justify us 
in striking on such grounds as we now had ; and, at 
any rate, we could always do that, if it came to 
the worst. There was no necessity to be in such 
a terrible hurry to throw up our jobs. The times 
were hard, and half a loaf was better than no bread ; 
besides, if some of the members of the committee 
were right, a strike was just what he wanted, and 
we should be fools to play into his hand. 

Q 


226 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


A vote was taken on the sense of the meeting, 
and it was shown that nearly three-fourths of 
those present were in favor of giving the company 
ample time to show whether they intended to deal 
fairly by us or not. It was also recommended 
that we make our organization permanent, and 
hold monthly meetings hereafter. These two reso- 
lutions had to be submitted to the other side at 
their meeting the following evening; and as they 
indorsed them, the trains continued to roll without 
interruption. 

This flurry having passed successfully, the timid, 
or, if you choose, “conservative,” element now 
began to join the organization with the avowed 
purpose of controlling it, and preventing any more 
such dangerous propaganda as that from which 
we had so narrowly escaped. 

But it would seem that the president was indeed 
bent on having trouble ; for now there commenced 
a series of discharges for the most trivial causes, 
and the victims were not the radicals, either, but 
they were almost invariably the conservative old 
fellows who had been for years in the employ of 
the company, who had the best trains, and con- 
sidered themselves fixtures. They were the kind 
who wisely told us that we mustn’t think that we 
could dictate to a railroad company ; and as they 
seemed to consider themselves particularly charged 
with maintaining the company’s dignity, but little 
sympathy was felt for them, as one after another 


WE STRIKE 227 

their heads were lopped off, and we, the radicals, 
succeeded to their jobs. 

The oldest engineer on the road set up his 
wedges. One of them stuck on the trip out that 
night, the box got hot, he lost ten minutes with it, 
and was fired when he returned. The allowance of 
oil was reduced, until it was almost impossible to 
get over the division. At the same time, strict 
orders were issued that no stores must be drawn 
at the other end. A passenger engine got a hot 
engine truck-box. The engineer had no waste to 
pack it with. He used all the oil he had on it, lost 
time at every water-plug cooling it, and finally, 
just as he rolled into the depot, the wheel dropped 
off. He was discharged. An old conductor, a 
deacon in the church of which the president was 
a shining light, turned in twelve cents too much 
at the end of his run, and was rewarded with a 
blue envelope, entitling him — a man of sixty — to 
look for a job braking on freight, throwing switches 
in some yard, or flagging a road crossing, at thirty 
dollars per month, if he could get it. 

Soon the “conservatives’' could be counted on the 
fingers of an armless man. They outradicalled the 
radicals. As their ardor increased, ours cooled. We 
asked them how they liked it ; we reminded them 
that not so very long ago they were stanch sup- 
porters of the company, when we needed their assist- 
ance ; but now we were doing very well, thank you, 
the good jobs were coming our way, and we were 


228 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


making more money than we did previous to the cut, 
and getting jobs that we had never expected to be 
able to touch with a forty-foot pole. They asked us if 
we thought it was right to take the trains they had 
hauled for so many years. “ Certainly ! why not ? 
You are all getting discharged, and somebody’s got to 
have them, and they come to us by right of seniority, 
the same as they did to you.” We told them these 
things merely to aggravate them, but not being fos- 
sils we knew very well that the company was simply 
using us to club each other with, and that our turn 
would come just as surely as theirs had. 

Matters had been going on like this for nearly a 
year, when a rumor began to circulate that the gen- 
eral officers had been put on full pay again. If this 
was true, it was a most flagrant case of deliberate 
lying on the president’s part, that could be con- 
ceived; of course we had no means of proving it, 
but inside of two months the whole story was given 
in one of the daily papers in a signed article. We 
called a special meeting to consider this new griev- 
ance. By this time there was no division of opinion. 
The committee were unanimously instructed to give 
the president three hours to restore the wages of 
every man on the road, and if he failed, a word that 
had been agreed upon was to be sent by telegraph to 
every conductor and engineer on the road, or at work 
in the yards. A switchman was named in each yard 
to receive the word, and he was to post it on the 
bulletin board in the yard-master’s office, besides giv- 


WE STRIKE 


229 


ing it verbally to all the men whom he could reach. 
The receipt of the word “ Rain ” constituted a notice 
for every man to stop work at 4 p.m. on the following 
day, no matter where he should be. All engines were 
to cut loose from their trains, draw their fires, run as 
far from the train as possible, blow out the boiler, 
and empty the tank, filling the firebox to the crown- 
sheet with green coal. The crews were then to 
leave them, and make their way home as best they 
could. Conductors and brakemen of passenger 
trains were to stay with their trains, and care for 
their passengers as long as any remained on board, 
or until relieved. Switchmen were to securely 
spike all switches in their charge and go home. 
No striking employee would be allowed to trespass 
on the company’s property during the continuance of 
the strike. 

It was acknowledged on the part of the men that 
if we once struck, many of us must expect to lose 
our positions ; but matters had become so unbearable 
on the road lately, that few cared what the result 
would be. A petty tyrannical system of fines and 
suspensions had been inaugurated, which, together 
with our reduced rate of pay, kept us in such poverty 
that we began to fear actual starvation ; everybody 
had got as deeply in debt as he could, and the 
keepers of stores, boarding-houses, and saloons, who 
were nearly as badly off as ourselves, sympathized 
with us, and promised to help all they could. 

The same committee was again sent to interview 


230 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


the president. This time we were not admitted to 
the inner office ; he stepped out into the anteroom, 
and asked us our business. I reminded him of his 
promise : that when wages were restored, he would 
begin at the lowest-salaried man, and remain until 
the last himself. “Well, what of it?” said he. I 
handed him the paper, and asked if the article to 
which I pointed was true. He glanced over it rap- 
idly, his face flushed to the roots of his hair; and 
slapping the paper viciously with the back of his 
left hand, he said, with his teeth clenched and the 
words hissing through them like steam through a 
leaky stuffing-box, “ This is the most outrageous 
insult to which I was ever subjected. What do you 
mean by coming here with this filthy rag ? Do you 
realize that you are accusing me of wilful, deliberate 
lying?” 

I told him that we had made no accusation ; but, 
seeing the statement with the author’s name at- 
tached, we had concluded that there must be some- 
thing in it, or if not, that he would thank us for 
having called his attention to it so that he might 
punish the slanderer ; and anyhow, we had been sent 
to him to ask for a restoration of our pay. 

He glared at me like a wild beast ; I thought he 
would jump at my throat, but controlling himself 
with an effort, he said, “ I told you men when you 
were here before, that when the financial condition 
of the road warranted the restoration of the former 
rate of pay, I would consider the matter. When that 


WE STRIKE 


231 


time comes, and I have considered it, you will be 
informed of my decision.” 

The brakeman on the committee chipped in here, 
and asked him if the report in the paper, that the 
general officers, including himself, had had their pay 
restored, was true or not ? 

“ I don’t think you know to whom you are talking. 
I will not be catechised. When I have any communi- 
cation to make to the employees, it will be made in 
the usual manner, by means of an order.” 

He was about to return to his sanctum, and seeing 
that there was absolutely no hope of getting any- 
thing out of him I said, “One moment, sir, if you 
please ; we are not through yet. Our orders are to 
notify you that unless an order restoring our pay 
appears within three hours, we will resign in a body.” 

“ Who are we ? ” 

“ Every employee in the train service of this rail- 
road.” 

“Very well. I can’t help it ; and as for this com- 
mittee, you can consider yourselves discharged now, 
and I shall issue orders at once to have any of you 
who may be found trespassing on the company’s prop- 
erty arrested, and lodged in prison.” 

“ The h — 11 you will, you bean-eatin’, psalm-singin’, 
son of a down-east Jew,” said old Merrill, the con- 
ductor. The door slammed, and he was gone ; at the 
same time a policeman appeared from somewhere, 
and ordered us out of the building. We went, mak- 
ing a great deal of unnecessary noise, for we were 


232 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


mad clear through, and being discharged, neither 
owed nor showed allegiance or respect to our late 
president or the property under his control. 

For the next half or three-quarters of an hour we 
kept a telegraph operator busy sending the word 
“ Rain ” to innumerable addresses all along the line. 
There was no occasion to report. All hands would 
know the result of our interview before sundown, and 
as we were certainly out of it, we had no more inter- 
est in the fight now than any other spectators. 

The next day at four o’clock in the afternoon every 
wheel stopped, and every locomotive fire was dumped 
on more than seven hundred miles of railroad, includ- 
ing branches and leased lines. The men were a unit, 
and the paralysis was perfect. 

That night the road was dead. The next morning 
the papers blazed with accounts of the strike and 
advertisements for help. Engineers, firemen, railroad 
men of any kind, laborers who never saw a railroad, 
anybody that could work, could find permanent em- 
ployment and good wages at the office of the super- 
intendent of the railroad. 

The clerks in the offices were hustled out into the 
yard, and made to sweat and lacerate their delicate 
hands, tear and soil their cloths, and injure their 
tender feelings, by pulling spikes from switches, 
clawing the green coal out of the fireboxes, dragging 
heavy and “ narsty ” hoses to the engines, and form- 
ing bucket and cordwood brigades, while we sat on 
the fences and cheered them on to their unaccus- 



u The clerks in the offices were hustled out into the 
yard.” — p. 232. 






















WE STRIKE 


233 


tomed and unwelcomed toil by such remarks as never 
fail to present themselves to the mind under such 
circumstances. The new employees, as fast as hired, 
were sent to help. Their appearance and awkward 
manner of going about the work offered fresh subjects 
for our witticisms. Their patience must have been 
sorely tried. From jeering it was but a short step 
to throwing various missiles. The clerks dodged in 
fear and trembling, but the laborers talked back, and 
gave threat for threat, sarcasm for sarcasm. 

At length a half a brick struck a burly Irishman 
in the small of the back as he was straining at the 
clawbar to draw a spike. He straightened up a mo- 
ment, rubbed his sore back, and then with a yell of 
rage, he started for a grinning crowd with the heavy 
clawbar. It was the one spark necessary to kindle 
a furious conflagration. I have said that the whole 
population of the locality sympathized with us. 
They were out in force, and when the interloper 
resented what was considered to be his just deserts, 
he found that he had stirred up a hornet’s nest. 
The crowd having once broken loose, charged 
through the yard, driving everything before them. 
Before the police arrived a dozen fires were started 
in as many different places ; and owing to the im- 
possibility of getting the fire engines through the 
yard, over fifteen hundred cars, many of them loaded 
with valuable merchandise, were burned to the 
ground before the flames could be extinguished, and 
seven locomotives, their tanks and boilers empty, 


234 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


were completely ruined. The night shut down on a 
dreary scene of smoking desolation, where but the 
day before the air had rung with the cheerful 
sounds of busy commerce. The sheriff telegraphed 
to the governor for troops, saying that he was unable 
to control the mob. The next morning militiamen 
were patrolling the yard, and the work proceeded 
with no further interruptions than an occasional jeer- 
ing by the onlookers at the awkward attempts of the 
new men, to get the few remaining dead engines 
watered and fired-up. 

In the meantime there was the very old Harry to 

pay up the road. At W , where I once had such 

a time weighing coal cars, three locomotives had 
been run into the turn-table pit. A rock cut, about 
a mile west of the station, had been choked by tum- 
bling its natural walls into itself. This was accom- 
plished by dropping cartridges into the seams and 
cracks along the top on both sides, and exploding 
them ; the natural consequence being that huge 
blocks were split off, and tumbled into the cut. The 
idea was to close the road, and prevent the passage 
of trains, but after the job was done, it occurred to 
the perpetrators that there was a branch that would 
enable them to run around the obstruction ; so a hand- 
car was loaded with rendrock, and four men took it 
to an iron bridge five miles farther east, and before 
the second morning of the strike dawned, the bridge 
lay in the creek, and the road was most effectually 
“cut in two.” 



The night shut down on a dreary scene of smoking desolation.” — p. 234. 


















































































































































































- 


4. 


. 













* 














WE STRIKE 


235 


I heartily disapproved of this violence and destruc- 
tion ; not from any quixotic sentiment on the com- 
pany’s account, but because I knew it could do 
nothing but harm to the interests of the men. Al- 
though I was discharged, and could never expect 
to work on the road again, there were many elderly 
married men that I hoped would be reinstated after 
the trouble was over ; but if the rioters continued to 
destroy property, it was sure to be blamed on the 
employees, whether rightly or not, and would make 
it next to impossible for any of them to be taken 
back. 

I went among them and advised them to remem- 
ber the order issued by the organization, that ali 
employees should refrain from trespassing on the 
company’s property. I was assured by all the men 
I saw that they had obeyed the order strictly, and I 
believe that as a rule they had, but I will not go to 
the extent of claiming that none of them took any 
part in the rioting, for railroad men are far from 
angelic, and many of them had cause to hate every 
rail and spike in the road. 


CHAPTER XV 


THE PRESIDENT SWEARS OUT WARRANTS WE GO 

EAST STRAPPED IN BUFFALO DRUNK AND DIS- 
ORDERLY WE HOOF IT — LEVYING ON THE FARM- 
ERS A MOVABLE FEAST 

It took them three days to get the trains in. 
Then, with such men as they could pick up, they 
began to operate the road — after a fashion. The 
president, having now presumably recovered from 
the first shock of the strike, swore out warrants for 
the arrest of all the members of the committee. 
Not caring to gratify the gentleman’s animosity by 
serving the state at his request, I left town between 
two days, in company with my chum, Frank Manly. 
We both had a few hundred dollars ; and as we knew 
that the vicinity of Chicago would be anything but 
a sanitarium for us for a long time to come, we 
decided to go east, and see what manner of country 
it was that had produced our president. 

We had both been working steadily for years, so 
that our enforced holiday was not entirely unwel- 
come, and when we got as far as Buffalo, feeling that 
we were now safe from our enemy, we determined 
to celebrate a bit, as young fellows sometimes will. 
Either we were unfortunate in our choice of entertain- 
236 


JOYS OF TRAMPING 


237 


ment, or else we bore the indelible mark of strangers 
about us ; for the result of our first night’s amuse- 
ment was that we were robbed of every cent, and in 
the fight that ensued between us and the robbers, 
we were arrested while they escaped. As we had 
been pretty roughly handled, our faces cut and 
bruised, and our clothing torn to rags, we made a 
pretty tough looking pair, when we were brought 
before the police magistrate next morning. 

“ What’s the charge, officer ? ” 

“ Drunk and disorderly ; they were creating a dis- 
turbance in Canal Street, fighting, your honor.” 

“ Which way ? ” (To us.) 

“ Sir ? ” said Frank. 

“ Which way are you two tramps going ? east, or 
west.” 

“ We’re not tramps, sir, we’re — ” 

“Which way are you going ? Come, out with it.” 

“ We were on our way east, sir, to — ” 

“Well, continue on your way east. I’ll give you 
thirty minutes to get out of town, and if you come 
before me again, I’ll give you thirty days in the 
workhouse. Next ! ” 

The policeman gave us a shove out of the door 
with a “ G’wan now — clear out ! ” 

Doggedly and shamefaced, we sauntered along, 
beginning to feel already the character that we 
looked. Presently Frank burst into a hearty laugh. 
I asked him what in thunder he found so awfully 
amusing? “Why,” said he, “we came east to see 


238 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


the country ; didn’t we ? What better chance could 
we have to see it, than by tramping over it ? The 
weather’s fine; it’s ‘the glorious month of June,’ 
we’re in no hurry ; why not take the magistrate at 
his word, and tramp east ? I’ve often thought when 
I’ve been sweltering along on the old 96, and seen 
the tramps lying around under the trees smoking 
their pipes, and enjoying life, that the difference 
between my style of living and theirs — in the sum- 
mertime, anyway — was mighty dearly paid for, by 
working three hundred and sixty-five days a year, for 
a soulless corporation. Somehow, it has always 
seemed to me that sometime I’d have a hack at it, 
and I don’t suppose I’ll ever have such a chance 
again. Nobody knows us here, so we needn’t have 
any false modesty, and besides, it’s a case of have to 
anyway. We’ve been ordered to turn tramp by a 
duly constituted authority, with a suitable penalty 
attached if we fail to obey ; we haven’t a red cent 
between us, so I don’t see that there’s any other way 
out of it. Come on ! don’t be so glum. There are 
thousands of tramps, and we look the part ; so let’s 
make the best of it, and get whatever fun out of it 
we can, — what do you say ? ” 

I suppose the natural depravity that lies so near 
the surface in everybody’s nature, responded to the 
appeal ; for my spirits rose at once, and I said, “ All 
right ! I’m with you ; but I’ll tell you one thing, I 
won’t beg. You’ll have to do all that part of it.” 

“Who said anything about begging? Do you 


JOYS OF TRAMPING 


239 


remember that lead-pencil peddler that stopped at 
the boarding-house for a week last fall? He was 
an almighty wide-awake fellow. I got quite well 
acquainted with him, and he told me all about him- 
self. I didn’t believe all he said, but I’m satisfied 
that most of it was true. He said the man didn’t live 
that he’d work for, no matter how good the job was, 
or the pay either. He said he had always made a 
good living, and been his own boss ; and he told me 
how he and another fellow put in a whole summer, 
tramping from New York to Cleveland, Ohio. They 
never begged, and therefore they were never re- 
fused. Never you mind how it was done; I know, 
and that’s enough.” 

We had taken to the New York Central Railroad, 
and were well out into the country, when it became 
dark, and in spite of my determination to enjoy the 
experience, a lonesome, half-scared feeling would 
come over me when I remembered that I had no 
money, and didn’t know where I was going to sleep 
that night. 

After walking — as it seemed to me — hours and 
hours, until my feet and legs ached so that it seemed 
as if I should drop, we sat down on the bank, to rest. 
As we had eaten nothing for more than twenty-four 
hours, I suggested that the sound of the dinner bell 
would be more than welcome. To this hint Frank 
replied, “ Knights of the road, of our degree, that is, 
those who are too proud to beg, and too lazy to work, 
must do the other thing ; that’s why we travel so 


240 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

late. If I’m not mistaken, there’s a farmhouse just 
round the curve, and as every man’s hand is against 
us, I propose that our hand be against every man. 
The first thing to do is to provide ourselves with 
good serviceable cudgels, because the fool dogs that 
these farmers keep seldom know enough to mind 
their own business.” 

After we got our clubs cut and trimmed to suit, 
we reconnoitred the farmer’s barn. It was the first 
time that I had ever been engaged in such a bur- 
glarious proceeding, and I was terribly frightened. 

To go marauding about strange premises in the 
dark, not knowing what you will find on turning a 
corner or opening a door, but realizing that the 
owner would be perfectly justified in shooting you on 
sight, is not pleasant to a novice ; but the faintness 
of incipient starvation made me, if not brave, at least 
desperate. We were in search of the hen-roost — a 
noble occupation for my father’s son. Frank, as the 
leader of the forlorn hope, went ahead ; while I 
brought up the rear, to look out for dogs and 
farmers. Fortunately for us there didn’t seem to be 
any dogs, and the barn was so far from the house 
that our noiseless proceeding failed to disturb the 
peaceful slumbers of the honest man, who, tired 
from his day’s work, was no doubt snoring lustily in 
peace, while we two scallywag tramps robbed him of 
the fruit of his honest toil. 

Once Frank pulled open a door or shutter which 
was unexpectedly hinged at the bottom, and, before 


JOYS OF TRAMPING 


241 


he could catch it, it dropped with a reverberating 
bang and rattle against the side of the building, 
making noise enough to alarm a county. Breath- 
lessly and in hot haste we retreated to the railroad, 
and I was for abandoning the job altogether; but 
Frank strolled carelessly toward the house, and, hav- 
ing satisfied himself that no one was stirring, we 
resumed our operations. Frank assured me that, 
on the falling of the door he heard from within the 
building a startled clucking and rustling which told 
him that “Eureka” was the word. 

He climbed through the hole, — no money could 
have tempted me to do that, — and presently I 
heard a whispered “ Here ! ” and a Plymouth Rock 
hen with her head under her wing was passed out 
to me. I waited, expecting him to come out. It 
seemed an hour when I again saw a spot of extra 
blackness in the dark square and received a rooster. 
Frank soon followed, and, giving him the rooster, 
we got away from there at once. He had been all 
over the place, he told me, in search of eggs ; but 
though he found none, he did find a lump of rock 
salt in a manger. It had probably been nosed over 
and licked by the horse for weeks, but that wouldn’t 
hurt it any inside , would it ? 

We walked a good five miles before we dared to 
cook our game. In the meantime, we had wrung 
their necks, borrowed a ten-quart milking-pail that 
we saw inverted on top of a fence stake, and filled 
it with new potatoes and green onions, Coming to 


242 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


a bridge over a stream, we decided that no better 
place for breakfast could be found. There was an 
old wreck of a building close by which supplied 
us with ample fuel. We disembowelled our fowls, 
skinned them, and, without wasting even the heads, 
soon had them boiling merrily under the bridge, in 
company with the potatoes, onions, and a generous 
lump of salt. The light of our fire must have shone 
up through the ties and rails of the bridge, for 
several freight trains called for brakes, thinking, 
no doubt, that the bridge was on fire ; and on dis- 
covering their mistake, they would pull out again, 
and go clanking and pounding over our heads, curs- 
ing us for the annoyance we had caused them. One 
fellow threw a shovelful of soft coal down upon us, 
a quart of which (estimated) went to the seasoning 
of our stew. But, as Frank remarked, while we 
could have got along without the additional ingre- 
dient, still he had heard it said that it was very 
nutritious, and as we had both, no doubt, swallowed 
many pounds of it during our railroad experience, 
we needn’t mind a trifle more now ; we could let 
the dish stand a bit, and the heaviest particles 
would sink. However, we always carried the pail 
to a sheltered place after that whenever a train was 
passing. 

The odors that arose from that boiling pot will 
remain in my memory while life lasts, as the most 
delicious that I ever smelled. It was tantalizing to 
fish up a piece of meat with a pointed stick and 


JOYS OF TRAMPING 


243 


find it tough yet, — beyond all hopes of mastication. 
It was getting daylight. Frank had remained for 
a bit seated on a stone behind me, watching the 
“killies” swimming in the shallow water, while I 
stirred the pot. I had just made an ineffectual 
attempt to bite the rooster’s neck, when, feeling 
Frank standing at my back looking into the pot, 
I said, “ I wonder how some of those killies would 
go in this mess ? ” “ Oh, I don’t know anything 

about thatf said a strange voice, and, looking up, 
I found a robust, full-bearded young farmer watch- 
ing me. I threw a hurried glance around for Frank ; 
he was nowhere in sight. I wondered if he had 
been quietly nabbed and I was to be next. ‘‘Fine 
mornin’,” said I, with all the composure — or ef- 
frontery, if you like — at my command. “Yes,” 
said he; “the mornin’s all right.” But he never 
took his eyes off the pot, where, as I continued to 
stir, the hen’s and rooster’s heads circled round and 
round after each other in a merry race, encouraged 
and accompanied by crowds of enthusiastic partisans, 
in the shape of potatoes and onions, — the regatta 
taking place in a miniature reproduction of the 
Black Sea, due to the unsolicited contribution of 
soft coal. The situation was embarrassing. I felt 
the young stranger’s presence to be de trop , his 
visit untimely, and wondered at his ill manners. 
Couldn’t he see that we had not yet breakfasted ? 

While I was in this predicament, not wishing to 
be inhospitable, and yet — Frank appeared upon the 


244 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


scene with his club. I never could have believed 
that my chum, Frank Manly, the dashing young 
engineer, the adored of the girls, the central figure 
at all balls and picnics, the young man of whom I 
had often heard it said that even when he was firing, 
he could get off his engine at the end of a hundred 
and fifty mile run, looking as if he had just come 
from the hotel, — could ever look like this. His 
three days' growth of heavy red beard, the yellow and 
green tints of a rapidly disappearing black eye, a 
shiny crimson band across his nose and cheek bones, 
where he had been unaccountably sunburned the day 
before, together with his generally ragged and dirty 
appearance, had transformed him into as tough a 
looking specimen of the genus tramp as was ever 
seen, even on the comic opera stage. With the cor- 
rect swagger and hoarseness of voice, he approached 
and asked, “ How’s that d — d swill gettin’ along ? 
Those d — d farmers around here ought ter be clubbed 
ter death fer the way they starve their poultry. I ain’t 
had a decent meal since I left Syracuse. How’s your 
hens, ol’ man, hey ? ” and he gave the unoffending 
tiller of the soil a vicious dig in the ribs with the 
end of his cudgel that nearly doubled him up. 

The farmer drew away a bit, and with a much 
more respectful air than he had used when he 
thought I was alone, said, "‘That old buildin’ be- 
longs to me, boys; I bought it from the railroad 
company; take what you want fer your fire, but don’t 
burn the buildin’ itself, will ye ? ” 


JOYS OF TRAMPING 


245 


“ There, now!” said Frank; “I’m glad you told 
us that, because we thought it belonged to the rail- 
road, and that’s just what we were goin’ to do to 
it — burn it up; but now, of course, we’ll let it alone. 
Won’t you have some breakfast with us, neighbor ? 
It don’t look quite as nice as it would if that d — d 
fireman hadn’t dumped a scoopful of coal into it, 
but it’s all the more filling, and just as healthy.” 

“No, thank ye; my breakfast’s waiting for me up 
to the house.” 

“ Didn’t have manners enough to return the invita- 
tion, did he ?” said Frank. “The first thing he’ll do 
will be to count his chickens, and the next to send 
his hired man, if he’s got one, or go himself if he 
hasn’t, for the constable to arrest two tramps that 
are having a blow-out of boiled hen, down under the 
railroad bridge; so, of course, we’ve got to move out 
of the kitchen into the breakfast room. Come on ! ” 

Shoving his club through the handle of the pail, 
I grasped the other end, and we moved our Lares 
and Penates, not along the track, — oh no, we were 
getting too wary for such work as that, — but down 
the bed of the stream, towards a small wood half a 
mile or so away, where, having arrived at last, we 
greedily devoured our long-delayed meal, the first to 
be eaten by us in the field. With pointed sticks we 
fished out the fragments of the dismembered fowls, 
and what we were unable to chew, we swallowed 
whole, taking alternate drinks from the pail, of the 
inky broth down to the very dregs ; as the vegetables 


246 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

had all boiled to a mush, I have never been able 
to satisfy myself even to this day, that the major 
part of the coal contribution did not remain sus- 
pended in it. However, be that as it may, it was a 
most delicious and satisfying meal, although about 
one-third the quantity of salt would have been an 
improvement. 

As we each contained a fully matured fowl, we 
now felt inclined to sleep, and the day being fine, 
we crawled into a clump of bushes, and slept the 
sleep that is known only to possessors of full stom- 
achs and clear consciences. 

I awoke about three o’clock in the afternoon lying 
on my back, with my mouth wide open, and so dry 
that I could not close it. Frank was in the same 
position, and looking down his throat, I saw that he 
too was completely burned out by the saline mess in 
his stomach. I took the pail down to the brook, and 
after taking the biggest drink that I ever remember, 
filled it, carried it back, and awoke Frank. When he 
saw me with the pail, he reached for it and drank, until 
I thought I would surely have to make a second trip, 
but he put it down at last, and said, “ By George, I 
never lived so high in my life. I don’t wonder tramps 
stick to their jobs as they do. Did you ever eat any- 
thing as good as that stew ? I never did, and I never 
drank anything so good as that water, nor so much.” 
We sat in the warm sun and talked, and drank water, 
Frank remarking that one of the beauties of tramping 
was that you didn’t have to eat all the time, for after 


JOYS OF TRAMPING 

one such hearty meal as we had enjoyed you could 
live a couple of days on water. 

We missed the comfort of a smoke ; for though we 
each had a pipe and matches, we had no tobacco. 
Frank asked me what kind of a shot I was. I told 
him I hadn’t fired a shot since Lee surrendered — 
a standard joke on the road, attributed to an in- 
tensely patriotic blacksmith in the shop, who was 
said to have been all through the war, and to have 
made the reply in a very dignified manner to some 
of the boys, who invited him to go on a hunting 
party. He asked me if I was a good hand at snipe- 
shooting, and said he would show me how it was 
done, the next time we came to a town. 

Having sufficiently rested ourselves, we returned by 
a wide detour to the railroad, and resumed our easterly 
course. We tramped along silently for a while, when 
on glancing back, I saw a man coming after us at a 
rapid rate. My guilty conscience took alarm at once, 
and I asked Frank if he supposed it could be a con- 
stable after us, on account of our little irregularity 
of the previous evening. “Na-a!” said he, “and 
sposen it was, ain’t we two to one ? and what are 
these clubs for?” I didn’t just like the reckless, 
defiant air that seemed to be growing upon him, 
although when I mentioned it, he assured me that 
it was from me that he had learned it. As the man 
was gaining rapidly on us, we waited for him to come 
up. He turned out to be a young fellow of twenty 
or thereabouts who had been working as a section 


248 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

hand on the Lehigh Valley road. He had been laid 
off, and hearing that a former employer had a contract 
to build some railroad in the neighborhood of Jersey 
City, this energetic young fellow had started on a 
walk of over four hundred and twenty miles on the 
bare possibility of getting employment, of the hardest 
kind, at a dollar, or a dollar and a quarter per day, 
provided the rumor proved to be true. He was the 
most energetic tramp that we ever saw. He gave us 
each a pipeful of tobacco and advised us to go with 
him, assuring us that he could get us a job on our 
arrival. But when we declined, he bid us good-day 
and started off again at a killing pace, saying that he 
intended to make forty miles per day, which, at the 
rate he was going, he could easily do if only he were 
able to keep it up. 


CHAPTER XVI 


THE MONOTONY OF THE TIES — THE USE OF MILK- 

PAILS A KINDLY PROVIDENCE SNIPE-SHOOTING 

A DISCOVERY IN NATURAL HISTORY HUNTING 

TURKEYS — HOP-PICKING — IN FUNDS AGAIN 

Tiring of the monotony of the ties, we branched 
off into a country road. I, being in advance, saw 
a couple of half-grown roosters fighting just inside 
the fence. I reached in between the bars, and 
grasped the pair by their necks with one hand, as they 
were viciously but feebly pecking away at each other, 
like a pair of gamy but exhausted gladiators. The 
firm grip that I had on their necks prevented them 
from commenting on this summary method of restor- 
ing the peace. 

The house being out of sight behind us, I held my 
kicking and flapping prey aloft for Frank’s admira- 
tion. “Gosh!” said he, “broilers for tea! What 
better could anybody ask than that ? ” As they were 
inconsiderately scattering their tell-tale feathers about 
the place and over me, we quietly stretched their 
necks, and each taking one, were carelessly walking 
along looking for a good place to establish our kitchen, 
when it occurred to me that there was no necessity 
of making such a vainglorious display of our suc- 
249 


250 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


cess, and I suggested to Frank that it would be as 
well to hide them under our coats. 

None too soon, either; for we came directly upon 
a buggy containing three brawny farmers, who, we 
felt sure, would have interviewed us to our detriment, 
if they had seen the provisions. 

Seeing signs of a town ahead of us, we deter- 
mined to partake of our evening meal before enter- 
ing ; so we again took to the convenient woods, built 
a fire, and after having skinned and halved our birds, 
held them on sharpened sticks to the blaze. 

The result could not be called altogether satisfac- 
tory. In the first place, the fire was so hot that it 
burned our hands and faces, so that we were unable 
to hold the meat in sufficiently close proximity to 
it long enough to cook it thoroughly, although we 
did succeed in getting it well smoked. “ What fools 
we are,” said Frank, “to stand over this fire and 
roast ourselves here. This is the way to do it ; 
see ? ” and sharpening the end of his stick he stuck 
it in the ground in such a way that the half bird 
hung over near the flame. This was such an evi- 
dent improvement, that we both hurried to cut other 
sticks, on which to impale the rest of our meat. But, 
alas, on returning to the kitchen, we found that an 
eddy of wind had caused the fire to burn our sticks 
off ; and as the broils had disappeared, it was safe to 
infer that they had fallen into the fire. 

A hasty scattering of the brands brought them to 
light, sadly scorched and withered, but as we soon 


SONS OF REST 


251 


found, juicy and raw within. A short consultation 
resulted in our getting sticks five or six feet long, for 
the next experiment, so that we could sit at a com- 
fortable distance from the fire ourselves, and still 
retain control over the culinary operations. We 
squatted on our hunkers until we ached, holding the 
remainder of our provisions to the fire with one 
hand, like simple Simon fishing for the whale, while 
we gnawed alternate mouthfuls of cinder and raw 
chicken from the other. 

By the time we had finished our repast, we were 
spitting ink, and unable to realize that we had dined ; 
so we voted the broil a failure, and decided here- 
after to stew our provisions. Not the least con- 
vincing argument which led to this decision, was the 
fact that rock salt when licked between mouthfuls, 
did not assimilate with the food as satisfactorily as 
when boiled with it, to say nothing of the flavor of 
vegetables and the filling qualities of water; and 
Frank sagely observed that as providence had so 
kindly impressed upon the minds of the New York 
farmers the desirability of leaving their milk-pails 
out of doors over night, we never need lack for 
cooking-utensils, or take the trouble to carry them 
with us. 

As there was nothing to detain us longer in the 
woods, we started for the town, where Frank was 
desirous of arriving before dark, in order to initiate 
me into the noble sport of snipe-shooting, this ex- 
ceedingly gamy fowl being most easily traced to its 


252 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

lair in daylight. “ Oh, there’s a fine one. See ? ” 
Yes, I saw a cigar butt. Frank stooped with an 
air of well-affected carelessness, as if to scratch his 
ankle, and “ lifted ” the snipe. We left town well 
stocked with a varied outfit of tobacco — Havana, 
Connecticut, North Carolina. We had all the brands. 

We were not lucky that night in our search for 
shelter ; and at last had recourse to a field filled with 
haycocks, under one of which we found most uncom- 
fortable lodgings. The stubble underneath pricked 
us, and the damp, half-cured hay was unpleasant and 
inefficient as bed-clothes. During the night it 
rained, and after trying in vain to shelter ourselves 
with the hay until we were drenched, we left our 
inhospitable quarters, and tramped wearily and dis- 
consolately along the track in single file, I grum- 
bling at our ill-luck, and Frank, the philosopher, 
assuring me that as we were in the worst possible 
predicament now, the next change was bound to be 
for the better. And so it was ; for there suddenly 
loomed up in front of us a vacant barn, or something, 
into which we crawled, and finding a dry corner, 
shivered and slept, slept and shivered, until daylight. 

We were driven out by hunger, ravenous hunger, 
and made a discovery which was ever afterward of 
inestimable benefit to us. It was that in the early 
morning the barnyard fowls go a-field in search, I 
presume, of the proverbial early worm. In thus put- 
ting a respectable distance between themselves and 
the homestead, they confer a priceless boon upon 


SONS OF REST 253 

such hungry wayfarers as have sworn to subsist 
solely on the fruit of the chase. 

Another new and strange trait in the characters 
of these bipeds we discovered, which was, that when 
hunting in the long grass, they would not — as in all 
other cases — flee squawking towards home on our 
approach, but content themselves with merely squat- 
ting quietly in their tracks, whence we raised them 
in a loving embrace. 

We never starved after that ; for, though we did 
not restrict our hunting to this unexciting method, 
we depended on it when all else failed. I shall 
never forget the day when we made our first capture 
of half-grown turkeys. We came upon them in a 
field, — not a house nor a human being in sight ; 
there must have been twenty-five or thirty of them — 
long-legged, long-necked, peeping Toms. It looked 
as though we could walk right in among them and 
pick them up, but that was a mistake ; for though 
they didn’t run off to any distance, they dodged, and 
fluttered, and peeped ; and we ran after them, and 
fell down, until at last, exasperated, we fired our 
clubs at the bunches of them with force enough to 
have knocked down a house ; and, somehow, the club 
would fly over their heads, or hit a stone and be de- 
flected from its course, while they would huddle to- 
gether in a scared crowd, and peep at us as we ran, 
red-faced and breathless, after our clubs again. 

Of course, we succeeded at last ; and, with a whole 
boiled turkey inside of each of us, together with the 


254 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


“fixin’s,” we enjoyed the sound sleep which is the 
invariable reward of honest and successful endeavor. 

The turkeys were so luscious that we decided, 
hereafter, to dally no more with the robust physique 
of the maternal hen, as long as this year’s turkeys 
were available. Three days we camped in the neigh- 
borhood, and infested that turkey-run ; then, not 
wishing to outstay our welcome, we turned our faces 
again to the rising sun, each carrying a smoke-be- 
grimed tin pail containing two dismembered young 
turkeys, preserved with the last of our salt pounded 
fine. 

As our next meal must be eaten fresh, unless we 
could procure salt, we drew straws to decide who 
should beg that which we were unable to stea — levy. 

I was elected, as I felt sure I should be, and, taking 
our only tankard ( anglicl , tomato can), I sheepishly 
knocked at the door of the first house. A vixenish 
female shouted to me from within, to the effect that 
if I didn’t clear out she would set “Tige” at me. 
I asked if she wouldn’t please give me a little salt. 

“Salt!” she shrieked; “for the land’s sake, what 
do you want with salt ? I never knew a tramp to 
come beggin’ for salt, before. Yes, I’ll give you all 
the salt you want. The Lord knows, I wish they 
wouldn’t none of ’em ask for anything else but salt .” 

So saying, and having relieved me of the embarrass- 
ing necessity of answering her first question by her 
own flow of volubility, she filled my can with salt ; 
and thus ended my first and only experience in 


SONS OF REST 255 

begging, of which I was, and am yet, heartily 
ashamed. 

In order to show our gratitude to the lady, we 
gathered in fourteen ducklings which we found 
paddling in a little pond just out of sight of the 
house. They were insignificant little yellow balls of 
fluff, and, as we disdained to accept the parent duck, 
they served merely to thicken and flavor our soup. 

I sometimes became discouraged, and wished that 
we might find a job somewhere ; but Frank’s light- 
heartedness never failed him, and it seemed especially 
to break out every little while at my expense. One 
day I awkwardly stubbed my toe, with the result that 
the sole of my shoe parted company with the upper, 
as far back as the instep. At this mishap, Frank 
— whose shoes remained strangely sound — laughed 
uproariously. As I was obliged to lift my foot high 
in the air, and bring it down with a scraping motion 
to prevent doubling the sole under me, I suppose 
that my gait was rather odd, but it seemed to me that 
I was entitled to sympathy from him; instead of 
which I got the jeering remark, “Ho! ho! you’re 
done; you’ll soon be barefoot now.” I so forgot 
myself as to make a vicious swipe at him with my 
club, which he ducked, to be sure; but I had the 
satisfaction of seeing the top of his hat fly off, leav- 
ing him only the rim and sides. 

This was exceedingly gratifying to me ; for on 
account of Frank’s neat and tidy habits, his clothing 
was in a much better state of preservation than mine. 


256 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

No matter where we slept, in barn or box-car, he al- 
ways laid his hat carefully at a safe distance ; turned 
his coat inside out, folded it carefully, and laid it 
under his head ; then on rising he would brush and 
shake his clothes, picking off every speck of hayseed 
or dirt, while I impatiently called him to come on. 
I usually laid my hat handy, so that in case we were 
disturbed I could be sure of finding it, with the in- 
variable result, that I would lie on it during the 
night, — a treatment which a straw hat resents by 
becoming prematurely venerable in appearance, with 
its brim turned half a dozen different ways, and its 
crown a shapeless mass. I slept in my coat for the 
same reason, and as I had not the patience to go all 
over it the way he did, it not only became shapeless, 
but also very dirty. Hence I was well pleased to 
see his carefully preserved hat become at one fell 
blow more dilapidated even than mine. 

The good-natured fellow only laughed at my rage 
and his own mishap, and set himself at once to sew 
the crown in again with a piece of tough grass ; using 
the small blade of his knife for an awl. I found a 
piece of rusty wire and tied the sole of my shoe up 
the best way I could, but not being as handy as he, 
I made but a poor job of it, the wire continually 
coming off ; while one would have had to look sharp 
to notice the repairs to his hat. 

That afternoon we entered a small village, and 
spurred on by necessity, I entered a cobbler’s shop, 
and asked for the loan of a few pegs to fasten my 


SONS OF REST 


257 


sole on with. The kindly German not only gave me 
pegs, but seeing that I was unable to do the job my- 
self, he roughly pegged it on for me ; for which I 
thanked him profusely at the time, and repeat it here 
now. 

We avoided as much as possible associating with 
the fraternity. Sometimes we walked as hard as we 
could for a day or two, — why, we knew not, — then 
again we would loiter for days ; resting our tired 
feet and absorbing ozone. One whole day we spent 
on top of a small hill, with a few pine trees growing 
about. The most of the day I occupied myself trying 
to kill an old woodchuck, who had a hole under a 
stump on the side of the hill. I would lie on my 
belly just above his hole, with a big rock and watch 
for him to come out ; by and by I would see the tip 
of a gray snout where there had before been nothing 
but hole. I would not be able to perceive the slight- 
est movement to it, and yet after a while I could see 
that it was farther out than before ; slowly, imper- 
ceptibly, like the hour hand of a clock, it would 
emerge. When the entire head was in sight, I would 
cautiously raise my rock, only to see it disappear 
like a flash at the very first move I made. It must 
be terrible to have cultivated caution all one’s life 
to such a degree that every sound, no matter how 
slight, should overwhelm one with the fear of death. 
I think I would rather be dead at once and have it 
over with. 

It would be hours before the gray muzzle would 


258 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


appear again ; during all of which time I was obliged 
to lie so absolutely still that every bone in me ached, 
while innumerable creeping and buzzing things dis- 
ported and regaled themselves at my expense. I soon 
learned that my only hope of success lay in having 
my rock poised ready when the time came, and so I 
held it aloft for ages, as it seemed, and wished that 
he would come out, and sympathized with Saint 
Simon Stylites ; and when at last the auspicious mo- 
ment arrived, I was so stiff and cramped that the 
rock didn’t hit within a foot of the hole, and wouldn’t 
have hit him if it had; for he was too quick. I 
wanted that woodchuck awfully that afternoon, for I 
had heard, when a boy, that they made a splendid 
roast ; so I was terribly disappointed, when at last 
I had to acknowledge that I must give up. I have 
since learned that they are not nice ; so I don’t care 
anything about it now. 

As we meandered gently along the great steel 
highway, we heard from some of the riff-raff whom 
we met — or more frequently who overtook and 
passed us — fairy-like tales of the pleasures and 
profits of hop-picking. So hoping to be able to en- 
joy ourselves, and at the same time earn the where- 
withal to replenish our dilapidated wardrobes, we 
said that we would pick hops — provided we reached 
the hop country in time. Shortly after coming to this 
conclusion, we were hailed one day by a big, clean, 
wholesome-looking young German with : “ Say, you 
fellers don’ look like regly tramps ; do you vant to 


SONS OF REST 259 

vork ? ” “ Yes,” said I, hastily, thinking of my weak 

shoe, and some other things. 

“Veil, all thright ! I gif you tventy dollers de 
mont, and board, to thravel mit a dhrashin machine ; 
vat you say ? ” Before I could get my mouth open, 
Frank blurted out, “Naw, it’s too hard work — we’re 
hop-pickers.” 

“ So-o ? I guess you fellers don’ vants to vork 
vera mooch ; you are notting else as regly thramps ; 
dat’s betther you look out for dem bolicemons ; I dell 
you he make you vork.” 

I was so mad I could hardly keep from taking an- 
other crack at Frank’s hat ; twenty dollars a month 
and grub ! a fortune within our grasp ! But he said 
he had heard of those threshing-machine jobs before. 
He said they never hired anybody but tramps ; worked 
them eighteen hours per day, starved them to death, 
and then refused to pay ; sometimes even having 
them arrested on a false charge of thieving. 

From the Syracuse salt pans we replenished our 
stock of salt, breaking off the long “ icicles ” that 
formed wherever there was a slight leak, and as I 
became worried for fear we should be late at the hop- 
fields, we stowed ourselves away in the feed-trough 
of an empty “ palace horse car,” and rode to Oneida, 
where we saw the — to us — strange and disenchant- 
ing sight of women in bloomers ; from here we took 
a day’s march down into Madison County where the 
hops grow. We had heard in Oneida that the hop 
crop was heavy, and that pickers were not offering 


26 o 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


themselves in very great quantities, so we were em- 
boldened to strike the owner of a flourishing hop- 
yard for a job. He hemmed and hawed, said he 
usually engaged his pickers in advance ; but admitted 
that this season he hadn’t attended to it. This was 
our cue, and we expatiated on the scarcity of pickers ; 
we had come directly from Oneida and knew whereof 
we spoke. He eyed us suspiciously, — our appear- 
ance was certainly not prepossessing, — and then re- 
marked that this was only Thursday, and he wasn’t 
going to begin until Monday. But we assured him 
that he had better secure us now or he would regret 
it. We promised to work for our board in the mean- 
time; but he said that there were only two more 
working days, and then he would have to keep us over 
Sunday for nothing. Our eloquence finally prevailed 
over his mercenary scruples, and he set us to the 
time-honored tramp’s employment of sawing wood. 
We had eaten nothing that day, and as we bent our 
backs to the unfamiliar work, we perspired, and felt 
dizzy and faint. 

As it was late in the afternoon, we buoyed up our 
hopes with the thoughts of the good farmhouse supper 
we were to get later on ; and seeing several immense 
cans near the barnyard, we revelled expectantly in 
the luxury of oceans of bread and milk, new milk 
fresh from the cow. 

When it began to get dark, the hands drove up a 
large herd of cows, and from where we slaved on our 
empty stomachs we could dimly see them emerge, 


SONS OF REST 


26l 

one after another, and pour the contents of their 
milk-pails into the big cans, which they had previ- 
ously loaded on a wagon. I could stand it no longer, 
so, dropping my saw, I said to Frank, “ I’m going 
to have a drink of milk if the whole road stops.” 
As I neared the wagon, a big, good-natured-looking 
countryman approached it from the other side ; and 
I said, “Hey, Johnny! give us a drink of milk, will 
ye?” 

He stared at me a moment, then emptying his pail 
where so many had preceded it, thumbed his nose at 
me, and said in that aggravating, smarty way, that 
such people frequently have, “ No, sirree ; thet 
milk’s for the cheese factory, not for tramps.” And 
there were barrels of it. 

At last, when the cows were milked, the chores all 
done, and it was too dark to see anything, the 
“ help,” after noisily washing themselves at a rain- 
water barrel, and bragging in loud voices — for the 
farmer’s benefit — about how much work they had 
done, and how much they could do, blundered 
clumsily into the house. 

“ Well, blast them ! ” said Frank ; “ I wonder if 
they don’t intend to call us to supper. I’ve a great 
mind to collar a couple of his chickens, and a pail of 
that milk they’re so almighty stingy with, and clear 
out.” Just then the tall, gaunt form of the farmer 
appeared in the door, and he sung out, “ Hey, you 
two men, come in an’ eat.” 

“I should think he was calling his hogs,” said 


262 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


Frank, — “‘come in an’ eat ! ’ ” However, our in- 
dignation did not prevent us from responding with 
alacrity to the summons. 

A pan of cold boiled potatoes, with their jackets 
on, and a four-pound piece of cold boiled salt pork, 
all fat, and a loaf of bread that might have been one 
of the foundation bricks of the tower of Babel, — this, 
and nothing more, was the evening meal spread by 
this wealthy farmer of the Empire State for himself, 
his family, and his help. No, I do the good man an 
injustice ; there was a big white pitcher of well water, 
cold and sparkling, to be sure, but with the flavor of 
all his Dutch ancestors pervading it. Afterwards, 
when from long residence I acquired the privilege 
of being familiar with the help, I asked one of them 
if they ever cleaned out the well. He answered by 
asking, “ What fer ? ” 

I am not, and never was, “partial ” to fat salt pork ; 
neither was Frank. That night as we composed our- 
selves to sleep in the hop-kiln, Frank asked me how 
I liked hop-picking as far as I had got. I told him 
not to be discouraged ; I said that we had accom- 
plished something anyway, for instead of tramps, we 
were now “honest workingmen.” On Monday the 
hop-pickers arrived, and a busy scene at once ensued. 
The farmer put on his store clothes and developed at 
once into a “boss.” He was even too dignified to 
superintend the work himself. There was one man 
who was boss of the whole outfit, like a general 
superintendent, and then there were division super- 


SONS OF REST 


263 


intendents under him, called “pole-pullers.” They 
were pretty big men in their small way. Although 
the experienced pickers feared them not, yet to 
strangers, and tough-looking strangers like Frank 
and me, they were offensively pompous. As Sancho 
Panza said when eulogizing his master, they were 
“humble with the haughty, and haughty with the 
humble.” They said that we put too many leaves in 
with our hops, and kicked because we were so long 
filling our boxes, although the Lord knows we were 
anxious enough to fill them quickly ; for the longer 
you are about it, the more you have to put in, as 
they wilt so fast, and being paid by the box, a slow 
picker is obliged to pick many more hops for the 
same amount of money than a rapid one is. The 
old timers, pretty girls, and fast pickers, can cajole 
the pole-puller into bringing them good poles, i.e. 
those on which the hops grow in big, thick clusters, 
so that they can be scraped off by the handful, 
rapidly filling the box ; while the unfortunates who 
are without influence must take the measly ones, on 
which leaves predominate. Needless to say, Frank 
and I were in the latter class, so we stood there and 
picked, and sweated, and labored like galley slaves, to 
fill the apparently bottomless box ; while the others, 
being acquainted and respectable , chatted, laughed, 
and sang songs all day, thereby grievously emphasiz- 
ing our Ishmaelitish condition. In the evening they 
met at different hop-yards, as they were called, and 
passed the time dancing and enjoying themselves. 


264 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

At these merrymakings we were allowed to look 
on. 

With the arrival of the hop-pickers, our fare sud- 
denly and wonderfully improved, for no man dare 
feed his pickers poorly ; if he did, he would get none 
the next season. It is the only “ trade ” that I know 
of where the operatives are so independent. How 
we two hungry tramps did cover ourselves with glory 
at the table. We would be the first to sit down, and 
would shovel away for dear life, until the last picker 
had returned to work, and then for shame’s sake we 
had to leave the table still hungry ; and though we 
kept it up during our stay, we never succeeded in 
filling that long-felt want. 

As it is one of the axioms of hop-picking that in 
the cool of the morning, while the dew is still on the 
hops, they wilt less rapidly than later on, and there- 
fore the boxes can be more quickly filled, the ethics 
of the trade require early rising. And the same 
being true of the evening, the frugal pickers put in 
an outrageously long day, for pay at which an 
Italian laborer would turn up his patrician nose. On 
the first Saturday night, we lined up with the rest, 
and presenting our tickets which had been punched 
by the pole-puller during the week, to show the 
number of “ hop-sacks” we had filled, received our 
pay, or rather, to simplify the transaction, I pre- 
sented both tickets and received the money. 

That evening we went to the store and bought 
smoking-tobacco, pipes, matches, and socks. How 


SONS OF REST 


265 


good it was to smoke tobacco at first hand once 
more, and to wear socks with feet to them, instead 
of the hollow mockeries which we had been wear- 
ing now for some time, and which required constant 
watching to prevent them soaring above the tops 
of our shoes, and revealing our poverty-stricken 
makeshifts to an unsympathetic world ! 

How Frank managed it, I don’t know; but on 
the following Sunday he borrowed shaving-tools 
from one of the hands, and took off the villanous 
looking red stubble that had so long disfigured him. 
I never had noticed before that he was particularly 
good looking, so that I was surprised to see how 
handsome he was, and treated myself to the same 
luxury, with the extremely gratifying result that 
one of the Oneida belles actually smiled on me, — or 
at me, — and that night I dreamed dreams. 


CHAPTER XVII 


GOOD-BYE TO HOP-PICKING — THE INDUSTRIAL FEVER 

WE STEAL A RIDE THE IMPERIOUS BRAKEMAN 

SUBSISTING AGAIN ON THE ENEMY’S COUNTRY 

TEN DAYS IN JAIL MUCH NEEDED REST HIRED 

AT LAST AT THE THROTTLE AGAIN 

We, being two of the poorest pickers, were the 
first to be discharged. The farmer let us stay over 
night, and gave us our breakfasts next morning, 
for which act of Christian charity I hereby return 
thanks. Perhaps he wished to give us the oppor- 
tunity to put a day’s march between ourselves and 
his farm before dark. Cheerily we took to the high- 
way again. It was a beautiful summer’s morning, 
and our spirits rose with the genial surroundings, 
until I, mistaking the cause of our hilarity, asked 
Frank if he didn’t think it made a person feel happy 
and independent to have money in his pocket. 

He looked off up the road, gave a queer smile, 
and said, “ I dunno.” It was the only allusion he 
ever made to the fact that I had constituted myself 
the treasurer of the concern. However, I didn’t 
let on that I noticed ; and as we shortly came in 
sight of another hop-yard, we applied for work, 
266 



Roundhouse Studies. — p. 266 



HIRED AGAIN 


267 


and, to our surprise, were hired at once, and at 
a slightly advanced rate of pay, too. We stayed 
a week in this place; and then, the season being 
over, we rose from our dormitory in the barn bright 
and early, seized two pairs of pullets, whose roosting- 
place we had noted the night before, confiscated the 
necessary milk-pail ; and having laid in a supply of 
vegetables, — also from our late employer’s garden, 
— we withdrew to a near-by sylvan dell, and break- 
fasted. But after the recent festivities our primi- 
tive cooking palled on my pampered palate, and I 
declared in favor of a job, wages, and a boarding- 
house. To all of which Frank gave a ready assent. 
With this determination to quit at the earliest oppor- 
tunity the ancient and honorable order misnamed 
“ Sons of Rest,” we once more entered the highway, 
I, for one, sincerely hoping that here might end 
the trail of bones and feathers that had so far 
marked our course across the Empire State. We 
met a typical wanderer, who turned up his nose at 
us, when we told him that we had been picking hops. 
He said that he was going to the Oneida Commu- 
nity to get a job husking corn, and advised us to 
come along, saying that it paid better than hop- 
picking, which he contemptuously referred to as 
a “bum job.” 

The industrial fever being strong upon us, we 
agreed, and before nightfall had been refused em- 
ployment, with suspicious glances, and curt speech, 
by the superintendent of the cannery. Once more 


268 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


we were obliged to pursue military tactics, and sub- 
sist upon the enemy’s country. 

The next day we fitted ourselves out with cheap 
cotton trousers, straw hats, and cowhide shoes. We 
also bought two cheap shirts each, experience having 
taught us that the clothes-lines of the country were 
an unreliable source on which to depend for under- 
wear, the native women having a custom which 
cannot be too strongly deprecated, of taking in the 
wash before dark. We treated ourselves to a res- 
taurant dinner, and then, not having money enough 
left to amount to anything, we bought a bag of 
salt ; and feeling the need of stimulant after our 
hard season’s labor, we spent the very modest 
remainder in beer, and for a brief hour or so we 
knew the elation of spirit and freedom from cark- 
ing care that a moderate indulgence in this mild 
form of alcohol produces. 

That night found us snugly ensconced in the cor- 
ner of an empty box-car, en route for the effete 
east. If it is true that “ westward the tide of 
empire takes its way,” then indeed was ours a retro- 
grade movement. If any person had asked us where 
we were going, we could not have told him ; all we 
knew was that we wanted a job. And while every 
freight train on every railroad in the country was 
taking homeless, unemployed men — tramps — from 
the overcrowded east to the great and growing 
west in search of a place where their labor would 
purchase for them that which nature furnishes in 


HIRED AGAIN 


269 

abundance to every living thing but man, — food 
and shelter, — we two, who had sat for years on the 
right side of locomotives, — the master spirits of 
moving trains, — squeezed ourselves tightly into the 
corner of an old-box car, to evade the glance of 
the imperious brakeman who had looked in while 
the train stood at the water-plug, that we might 
go east. 

Before we slept, we had decided that the only 
thing left for us was to seek employment of the 
lowest grade, — pick and shovel work. Why, I don’t 
know, unless it was that we were influenced by our 
environment. Certainly we didn’t look to be fit 
for anything else, and so I suppose we didn’t feel 
that we were. 

For a week we passed through an experience 
that was both humiliating and abusive. Brakemen, 
becoming exasperated when we told them that we 
had no money, flung us headlong from rapidly mov- 
ing trains. City and village policemen ordered us 
to keep moving until we should be clear of their 
territory. Even the ducks by the roadside insulted 
our galled feet and weary limbs by admonishing us, 
in all seriousness, to “wa’k, wa’k, wa’k!” “Well, 
blast ye, ain’t we walkin’ ? ” said Frank. Once, 
while standing on a bridge and looking down at the 
railroad yard in Dewitt, a very black, ragged, and 
filthy negro touched me on the shoulder and said 
kindly, but with an air of freedom and equality 
that profoundly impressed me with my degradation : 


270 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

“ Hey, Johnny ! yer better go som’er’s V pick de 
hayseed off’n yer clo’es ; if dese yer railroad detec- 
tives sees yer, dey’ll run yer in, fer suah, ’n’ yer’ll 
git a month in de cooler.” 

It was true we had slept in a barn that night ; 
and while Frank, with his usual neatness, had care- 
fully shaken and picked all the hayseed from his 
clothes, the telltales had marked me, even to this 
negro tramp, as a member of the order. 

All these disagreeable incidents tended to disgust 
us more and more with our condition ; but although 
we faithfully asked for employment at every place 
where there seemed the slightest prospect that it 
might be obtained, the fates, aided no doubt by our 
disreputable appearance, were against us, and our 
proffered services were coldly declined. At last, 
that which we had dreaded in an indefinable way 
for some time came to pass. We were bathing in 
the Mohawk one day, — a daily practice which we 
had adopted for sanitary reasons, — when a slab- 
sided individual appeared on the bank and ordered 
us to come ashore and get into our clothes “ mighty 
quick ! ” As we had acquired somewhat of the 
spirit of the characters that we were personating, 
we recommended him to retire to a certain place 
which could hardly be considered a desirable locality 
in which to spend a summer outing. As he con- 
tinued to annoy us by his ranting, we, being two, 
assailed him with volleys of wet stones, driving him 
from the vicinity of our clothes. 


HIRED AGAIN 


271 


We came out then and dressed ourselves just in 
time to fall victims to our late tormentor and two 
other pumpkin-huskers that he had recruited from 
somewhere. We asked why we were arrested, and 
he told us that we would find out soon enough, 
advising us solemnly that anything that we might 
say would be used against us. 

As our captors were ostentatiously armed with 
bludgeons of green birch while we had nothing, 
we concluded that discretion was the better part of 
valor, and went with them as meekly as we could 
to a considerable town some three miles farther on, 
where we were run into a lock-up, and kept until the 
next day on a diet of tepid water. We were then 
arraigned before some kind of an official, charged 
with vagrancy, disturbing the peace, and resisting 
an officer in the discharge of his duty. 

We were found guilty on all three counts of the 
indictment, and sentenced to ten days in jail, — a 
mild punishment when you consider the heinous- 
ness of the crime. 

We got a good and much-needed rest in the little 
jail. We were well fed, and required only to keep 
our premises clean and in order, so that really it 
was more an act of charity than of discipline; but 
the feeling that we had now received the highest 
degree in trampdom was not exhilarating, though 
even from this condition light-hearted Frank drew 
a grain of comfort ; for he said that, having reached 
the very bottom of the ladder, our next change 


272 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

must be for the better. For my part, I could see 
no assurance that there was to be any change; I 
was under the impression that tramps regularly 
alternated between begging, stealing, and jailing. 
However, Frank was nearer right than either of us 
would have believed at the time. When our term 
expired, we were once more turned loose to prey 
upon the barnyards of the natives, but with a severe 
admonition to get out of town as fast as we knew 
how, or we might expect another and longer term 
of entertainment at the county’s expense. 

With this dire threat ringing in our ears, we pro- 
ceeded to the outskirts of the place, and lay in wait 
near a convenient water-plug all day. In the evening 
we boarded an east-bound freight, and after sleeping 
soundly all night, awoke to find ourselves stationary 
in a small siding. A few moments’ observation 
showed that we had been riding in a hay-car, and 
it had been left here near a cross-road for the con- 
venience of the neighboring farmers, who probably 
had hay to ship. Thinking that we might find work 
here, as from what we could see of the country and 
buildings it appeared to be a land of well-to-do 
people, we started off down the cross-road, and 
after catching, cooking, and eating a hearty break- 
fast, we applied for employment to a well-dressed 
old gentleman whom we met riding a handsome 
horse. 

“ What can you do ? ” said he, stopping and look- 
ing at us with an interest so new to us, that it caused 


HIRED AGAIN 


273 

us no little apprehension. Scenting a job, we both 
together answered eagerly, “ Anything.” 

“Well, but I mean, what have you done? have 
you any trade, or calling ? is there any one thing that 
you can do better than another ? ” 

We told him that we had no trade. 

“Oh, I see,” said he, with a rather supercilious 
smile, “just common tramps!” 

The expression, and the way in which he said it 
cut me, and I answered, “No, sir, we are not com- 
mon tramps ; we never tramped until this summer, 
and wouldn’t now if we could get anything to do. 
We’re railroad men out of a job.” 

“If you’re railroad men, why don’t you go over 
back here where they’re building that new road ? I 
understand that the contractor wants all the help he 
can get.” 

“Where ? ” said we both, in a breath. He directed 
us, and off we went in hot haste, elated at the pros- 
• pect of employment. Within half a mile from where 
we met the old gentleman we came upon a busy 
scene. They were building the roadbed of a double- 
track railroad, and in order to conciliate the resi- 
dents, employment was given to all the men, boys, 
and draught animals who applied. There were 
horses, mules, and oxen, hauling dirt and stone in 
all manner of vehicles. Besides the native contin- 
gent, there were gangs of Italians, Swedes, and Ger- 
mans, shovelling away for dear life, each gang 
presided over by an Irish foreman, who yelled at 


274 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

the laborers continually, while a big, black-whiskered 
man with a red face — the contractor — yelled at the 
foremen in turn. He saw us almost as soon as we 
did him, and beckoning to us, roared out, “ What in 
h — are you fellers loafin’ round for? Want a job ? ” 

“ Yes, sir.” 

“ Hey, Mike ! here’s two good men fer ye ; give 
’em a couple of shovels an’ let ’em git at that bank.” 

Hired at last, thank the Lord ! Here was work 
enough for months. It was hard work in the blaz- 
ing hot sun ; our backs ached, and our hands were 
terribly blistered. Mike, our foreman, was a driver, 
whom nobody could do enough to suit ; he was 
abusive too, but we didn’t care, it was work. There 
were wages and meals and shelter attached to it, and 
that was what we were after. I never felt so proud 
as I did when I quit at six o’clock that night, and 
took my place at the long board table in the shanty 
to help eat the bountiful supper that contractor 
Gallagher furnished us. I was tired to death ; every 
bone in me ached ; but I had an appetite like an 
ostrich, and I was no longer a tramp. It was re- 
freshing to hear the men talk. We were put into 
a gang of Swedes who could all talk English, and 
their conversation was not of tramping ; for they had 
never been tramps, never expected to be, and, in fact, 
didn’t seem to know that such people existed ; and 
Frank and I took precious good care not to introduce 
the subject. 

We learned that the pay was a dollar a day and 


HIRED AGAIN 


275 


board. It seemed as if a diamond mine had opened 
at our feet ; we began to build castles at once, — what 
could we not buy in a few months at that rate ? A 
vista of wealth opened before us such as we had 
never dreamed of before. A dollar a day and board, 
nothing to pay out of our wages, only once in a while 
a suit of overclothes to work in ! We marvelled at 
the contractor’s liberality. 

For two months we slaved under Mike Callahan’s 
tyrannical rule ; the road was pushed rapidly along 
through the nearly level farm land, and we were a 
long way from the place where we had been hired. 
We two were so overjoyed to be at work again, that 
we labored with a will. Occasionally, we had an 
opportunity to display our mechanical knowledge and 
skill, so that Mr. Callahan had come to depend on us 
when any unhandy or difficult job confronted him ; 
therefore, when Mr. Gallagher rode up in his buggy 
one day and told Mike to send his two best men 
down to the village in the morning with their “ kits,” 
we were chosen. 

Here we found half a dozen others, who had been 
drafted from the various gangs, and we learned that 
we were to go back down the road and assist in 
track-laying. 

It was a little higher grade of work, so our pay was 
raised twenty-five cents per day — more wealth ! 

As fast as we got the ties and rails spiked, a little 
old locomotive hauled the flat cars on to them ; the 
men shovelled the gravel off, the roadbed was graded, 


2 76 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

and the ties tamped. When we first went down 
there, the engine hauled eight or ten loaded cars, 
but gradually the engineer — a young fellow eigh- 
teen or twenty years of age — began to kick. He 
said that the engine was overloaded, — and so she 
was, — and he wanted a fireman. Gallagher said the 
engine had always hauled twelve cars before, and he 
didn’t believe that the engineer knew his business. 
As for a fireman, he’d see him d — d first. Nearly 
every day Gallagher came to the job and had a row 
with the engineer, while the engine was getting 
worse and worse ; until, at last, she stalled dead with 
eight cars, on a little knoll, with Gallagher looking 
right at her. 

He was furious ; he jumped on the engine, and 
hauled the young engineer out of the cab, kicked 
and beat him unmercifully ; and finally told him that 
if he didn’t clear out he would have him locked up. 
The young fellow wiped the blood and dirt from his 
face and demanded his money. At this, Gallagher 
had another fit, but contented himself with cursing 
the man, and telling him how much unnecessary 
expense he had put him to by reason of his incom- 
petency. “And now,” said Gallagher, “where 
in h — am I to get an engineer? Here ’tis three 
o’clock, Saturday ; I’ll have to lose the rest of this 
day, anyhow, and will be mighty lucky if I’m able to 
work Monday ; for even if I get a man, I suppose 
you’ve hoodooed the engine so that she won’t be good 
for nothin’.” 


HIRED AGAIN 


277 

After having relieved himself somewhat, he paid 
the man off, to get rid of him ; and, as he was step- 
ping into his buggy, I walked up to him, and said, 
“ Mr. Gallagher, if you want an engineer, I’d like to 
have the job.” 

He was interested at once. “Are you an engi- 
neer?” said he. 

“Yes, sir;” said I. “ Both my friend and myself 
are locomotive engineers of several years’ experi- 
ence.” 

“ By G — d, I believe it ; you look like it. Why 
didn’t you say so long ago ? That d — d fool has had 
the life worried out of me. Well, now, I’ll tell you 
what you do : it’s no use starting up again, now the 
men are all knocked off ; but you look that engine 
over, get acquainted with her, run her up and down 
the track here, if you like, this afternoon, and be 
ready to start to work Monday morning.” 

“ Didn’t you say that she used to haul twelve cars ? ” 

“Yes; an’ she did, too.” 

“Well, if you’ll give me what I want, I’ll guar- 
antee to haul them, every day I work here, up any 
grade that I have seen on the road, so far.” 

“ What do you want ? ” 

“ I want four men, besides myself, to work on that 
engine all day to-morrow, and I want a fireman ; I 
won’t run without a fireman.” 

“Want a job for that red-headed fellow, hey ? ” 

“ Yes, sir.” 

“Well, all right. Now I’ll tell you what I’ll do. 


278 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


You tell Mullins to give you all the men you want, 
and pick them out yourself. Use everything you can 
get hold of round here, and put that engine in the 
best shape you can. Then if you can take twelve 
loads up Apple Tree grade Monday morning, I’ll give 
you seventy-five dollars a month, and give Red-head 
fifty to fire for you; but if you don’t take but ten, 
I’ll only give you fifty dollars, and Red-head stays in 
the gang. What do you say to that ? ” 

“ I say all right,” said I. “ I’m perfectly satisfied.” 

I got my four men from Mullins, the foreman, and 
went at her at once. First, I took her down to a 
piece of straight track. Frank and I uncapped the 
steam-chests, and while the other two fellows pinched 
her for us, we set the valves a blamed sight nearer 
than they were before — they needed facing badly, 
but we had neither time nor tools. Then we took 
the cylinder-heads off, and set the packing-rings out 
so that they would touch the cylinders once in a 
while, anyhow ; and then it was time to knock off 
for supper. 

The next day we washed out the boiler, bored the 
tubes, repaired the arch and grate bars as well as we 
could, with what we could pick up around the place, 
and also opened the front end, cleaned out the noz- 
zles and spark-netting, squared the diaphragm, set 
it where we thought it would be about right, picked 
up the blower-pipe which was lying there loose, and 
connected it, cut off an extra two feet that my prede- 
cessor had added to the stack in the vain effort to 


HIRED AGAIN 


279 


make her steam, and having filled the boiler, we set 
our two helpers at work firing up, while Frank and 
I amused ourselves taking up lost motion. 

Having got steam, Frank banked the fire. I 
wouldn’t move her until Monday morning. Mr. 
Gallagher was on hand bright and early, but he 
never came near the engine, or even looked at her. 
Frank pulled the fire down while I oiled, and I told 
him to notify me quietly when he was ready. 

We backed up, and I told the men to couple on 
sixteen cars. The fellow who acted as a sort of con- 
ductor laughed at me; but I insisted, and she walked 
them up to the top of Apple Tree grade like a lady 
— blowing off the instant that I closed the throttle. 
I managed to steal a glance at Gallagher, and saw 
him turn with a grin and say something to the fore- 
man, but he never came near the engine. He stayed 
round there for an hour or so, and then climbed into 
his buggy and rode off. 

It was a week before I had an opportunity to 
speak to him, then he came up to the engine and 
asked how I was making out. I told him all right ; 
and he said that he was satisfied if I was. 

I ran and Frank fired the engine for Gallagher 
for four months. It was hard, dirty work, for it was 
our normal condition to be off the track. There was 
a great deal of rain that season and the sand-pit 
track was forever sliding from under us, to say noth- 
ing of the soft fills that we built out on the road, 
and then tried to haul heavily loaded gravel trains 


2&0 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


over. The natural consequence was that we spent 
most of our time on our backs in the mud, blocking 
up wheels and tracks. Then after the day’s work 
of twelve or fourteen hours was done, we had our 
engine to take care of, and in the morning we had 
to be at work at least an hour before the rest, so 
as to be ready. However, we were happy, and as we 
had no chance to spend our money, we accepted the 
offer of Mr. Gallagher to leave it in his hands, for 
which he agreed to pay us six per cent interest. 
We became so stingy that we cut our living ex- 
penses down to the last possible cent, for we wished 
to have a good stake when the job was done, one 
experience of tramping being enough. 


CHAPTER XVIII 


BUNCOED BY GALLAGHER AN OLD FRIEND TO THE 

RESCUE PRACTICAL RAILROAD KNOWLEDGE — 

BUILDING UP A ROAD — A SUNDAY-SCHOOL EXCUR- 
SION DISASTER — I LOSE MY NERVE — BECOME 

CONDUCTOR — A DRUNKEN ENGINEER 

After about four months of this kind of thing, 
Mullins came to the engine one morning and told 
us that he should not want her that day ; he said 
that we might have a holiday. I asked him why, 
but he merely shrugged his shoulders and walked off. 

Frank banked his fire, and we returned to the 
shanty, where we found the men standing about in 
groups, smoking their pipes and speculating on the 
cause of the stoppage of the work. Some of them, 
old railroad-builders, didn’t hesitate to say openly 
that Gallagher had “busted up,” or “was playing a 
sharp trick.” 

The latter proved to be the case, for we never saw 
him again, nor a cent of the four months’ pay for 
which we had worked so hard. It was very discourag- 
ing. We didn’t know what to do. We had no 
money, and were worse off for clothes than we had 
been when tramping, for all we had now were the 
dirty, ragged overalls in which we worked. Three 
281 


282 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


days we hung around waiting for something to turn 
up, for all sorts of rumors were afloat. We heard 
that Gallagher had committed suicide, that he was 
in jail, and that he was coming back to pay all hands 
and start up the work again ; the truth being that he 
had collared all the money he could lay his hands on 
and gone to Europe. 

As it was agreed that somebody would have to 
finish the road, we decided — partly because we could 
not do otherwise — to wait developments, and try and 
get employment with the new man, resolving, how- 
ever, never again to leave our wages in our employer’s 
hands any longer than we were absolutely obliged to. 
Now that so many of us had been swindled out of 
our money, it occurred simultaneously to everybody 
that we might have known that there was something 
wrong when a big contractor like Gallagher borrowed 
money from his employees. 

On the fourth morning after the collapse, a man 
mailed a notice on the side of the shanty, notifying 
all the late employees of the contractor who wished 

to enter the employ of the R. R. Co., to report 

at io a.m. to Mr. in the hotel at the village. 

This Mr. proved to be our old general manager 

in Chicago, the kindly, genial old gentleman who was 
displaced when the new, hungry, bean-eating, down- 
east president got control of the road. He knew 
Frank and me at once, and said he was pleased to 
meet us. After making arrangements to have the 
work started up again immediately, he told us that 


I LOSE MY NERVE 


283 


the company owning the road had decided to finish 
it themselves ; he said that he had been sent to 
superintend the construction, with orders to hire as 
many of the contractor’s men as chose to work for 
the company, with the understanding that the rail- 
road company would not be accountable for any 
wages due the men from the contractor. 

He told Frank and me that he believed it was 
going to be a good road. He said they had millions 
of English capital behind them, and that his orders 
were, to have all the work done in a strictly first- 
class manner, no skimping on account of expense. 
He said that he had been appointed superintendent 
of construction, and would undoubtedly be superin- 
tendent of the road when completed ; and he prom- 
ised us that if we chose to stay with him he would 
see that we were properly taken care of. All of 
which you may be sure raised our spirits from the 
slough of despond to the seventh heaven of delight ; 
for of permanent employment we had never dreamed 
while working for Gallagher, so that in reality his 
absconding with our four months’ pay turned out to 
be a blessing in disguise. Frank improved the oppor- 
tunity to remind me that he had predicted when we 
were in jail, that our next change would be for the 
better, and I was obliged to admit that it had indeed 
been the turning-point in our fortunes, for they had 
steadily improved from that day. 

We now saw the practical side of Mr. ’s rail- 

road knowledge. In Chicago we had known him 


284 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

only as the gentlemanly general manager, seated in 
his luxurious office, and surrounded by obsequious 
clerks and stenographers. 

Now we saw him, although a man over sixty years 
of age, equipped in long boots and rubber coat, 
floundering round in the mud; lugging ties, blocks 
or heavy wire switch ropes, and helping both by his 
knowledge and manual labor, to put cars and engine 
on the track. 

He worked earlier and later than any other man 
on the job, and introduced new methods whereby the 
work was greatly expedited. Inside of a week he 
had a steam shovel at work in the gravel pit, and 
plough cars on the road. Within a month two brand- 
new passenger locomotives with the name of the 
road in gold letters on their tenders arrived, and 
Frank and I each took one, while our old engine was 
given to another man. 

Mr. rode with me a great deal on the engine, 

and I learned to know him well, and to admire him 
sincerely. He told me that the incitement of the 
strike, and subsequent wrecking of the road in 
Chicago, was a stock-jobbing scheme inaugurated by 
the eastern syndicate which had secured control, and 
against whom he had fought as long as he could, but 
when they finally got control of enough shares of 
stock to elect their president, he didn’t wait to be 
kicked out, but resigned. 

Under the new management the road grew like a 
weed. The first division was opened for passenger 


I LOSE MY NERVE 


285 


traffic the next summer, and with my engine newly 
painted, and engine and train gayly decorated with 
flags, I had the pleasure of earning the first dollar 
for the company; which hangs in a gold frame in the 
president’s private office to this day. 

The road was a success from its inception ; it be- 
came at once a favorite passenger route to the west, 
on account of its palatial cars, fine roadbed, mag- 
nificent scenery, and faultless service. I, being the 
senior engineer, chose the Chicago limited for my 
train, and Frank being second, took the other side of 
it, so that we were still closely connected ; running 
the same engine on alternate days. It now seemed 
as if our troubles were indeed over. We had the 
most desirable train on a trunk line railroad, were 
intimate personal friends of the general superintend- 
ent, and our lines were indeed fallen in pleasant 
places. 

Being prosperous, and no longer boys, we looked 
about among the numerous, handsome, and eligible 
young ladies of our acquaintance, and soon dis- 
covered that there was a certain one peculiarly 
adapted to each of us, and the natural consequence 
of this discovery was that we were both married 
within three months of each other. We bought 
adjoining lots, and erected handsome houses ; each in 
every respect the duplicate of the other. Fortu- 
nately our wives had been life-long friends before 
their marriage, so that the most perfect harmony 
existed between the two families. 


286 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


Three years after my marriage, having completed 
the payments on my house, I felt that I was entitled 
to a holiday ; and as I had not heard from home for 
a number of years, I obtained ten days’ leave of 
absence, and with my wife and boy revisited the 
scenes of my childhood. 

Coal and iron having been discovered in the neigh- 
borhood, blast furnaces had been established, and 
that which I had left a quiet, peaceful country village, 
had become a grimy, smoky, thriving town. 

I learned that my father had been dead seven 
years ; my sisters were married, the elder having 
gone with her husband to California; while the 
younger was the wife of the superintendent of a large 
steel mill, recently erected in a neighboring town, 
which had grown up since I left home, on the site of 
a sheep pasture. Mother was living in the old home- 
stead, hale and hearty, and was delighted to see her 
boy, as she called me, once more. She took to my 
wife right away, and my boy would have owned her 
body and soul in another week. But the railroad 
man is as much a slave to duty as is the soldier, and 
so my leave having expired, we regretfully bade the 
dear old mother adieu, after exacting a promise that 
she should come to us at Thanksgiving time, and 
returned. 

Once more with hand on throttle, and head out of 
window, I went spinning over the iron on old 32, 
the most faithful engine that I ever knew. We both 
took great pride and comfort in her, and our train 


I LOSE MY NERVE 


287 


was of sufficient importance, and what was more yet, 
our acquaintance with the general superintendent 
was so intimate and so well known, that the master 
mechanic and round-house foreman were in the 
habit of doing pretty nearly all the work that either 
of us reported. I had noticed that the flanges on 
the leading engine truck wheels were getting worn 
pretty thin and sharp, and had spoken to the fore- 
man about turning the truck round, so as to bring 
the good wheels ahead. He had promised to do so, 
but as I suppose he didn’t consider it a matter of 
immediate importance, he let it go a week. I then 
asked Frank to report it, and he told me that he had 
done so before I did. I let it run for another week, 
and then as I didn’t consider the engine to be quite 
safe with them, I told the foreman that I should have 
to go to the master mechanic about it, if he didn’t 
attend to it right away. 

“ All right,” said he, “ I’ll surely do it next trip in. 
I’ve been so busy for the last couple of weeks that I 
couldn’t possibly spare a man a minute for any 
purpose.” 

“ Very well,” said I ; “ I’ll take her out this trip ; 
but I won’t take her out again until that truck’s 
turned round ; ’tain’t safe.” 

A heavy Sunday-school excursion train left half an 
hour ahead of me. As she was an extra, I had no 
occasion to look out for her ; it was her business to 
keep out of my way. They had ten cars, every seat 
filled, mostly women and children. The ferry boat 


288 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


was ten minutes late, and as our time had been 
shortened up fifteen minutes on the last time table, 
I knew I would have hard work to get in on time. 
So as soon as I got clear of the yard I let the old 
girl go for all there was in her, working all the fine 
points known to engineers to get every ounce of 
speed out of her, and yet keep her in steam, fire, and 
water. Eight miles out there was a low ridge over 
which the road ran ; it was a short, rather steep 
grade up, and then a long gentle sweep down for 
about two miles, around a curve, and then fairly 
level running ground for the next twenty-five miles. 
When she pitched over the top of the knoll, I started 
down the long grade at a good gait, for here was my 
chance to get a swing on to carry me over the long 
level stretch beyond the curve. 

As she gathered headway, I hooked her back a 
notch at a time, until she was flying like a comet. 
The cars rolled like logs in a lake, and as I glanced 
back, the last two were entirely obscured by the dense 
cloud of dust that we tore up from the track as we 
sped along. She was going sixty-five miles per hour 
if she was an inch. The sensation was exhilarating. 
I know of nothing that will fill a man with such a 
sense of joyful mastery as to sit at the head of a fast- 
flying train, a record-breaking train, and realize that 
it is his work, that there is no higher authority than 
himself here ; the superintendent, general manager, 
and president are left behind, and he alone is boss 
and king. As I approached the curve I could see 


I LOSE MY NERVE 


289 


that the excursion train was in the switch just beyond, 
waiting for me. I blew a crossing signal to let them 
know that I was coming, because excursionists have 
a great habit of getting off and spreading themselves 
all over creation every time their train stops, and I 
didn’t wish to kill any of them. I fancied I could 
hear the women and children utter little frightened 
screeches as we flew by them. 

It was a long, easy curve, and yet the speed was 
such that she struck it as solidly as if it had been a 
brick wall ; she tossed her head round for an instant, 
and then plunged straight into the side of that ten- 
car train crammed full of happy women and children. 

The flange of the leading wheel on the engine 
truck had broken, and allowed the engine to leave 
the track. Naturally, as she tore the rails from the 
ties in her mad flight, the whole train followed her. 
The engine crashed diagonally through four cars, 
smashing them as effectually as you could smash the 
same number of eggs with an axe. The cars follow- 
ing, rammed, telescoped, and climbed over the others. 
When the engine stopped, she lay on her left side 
beyond the siding. The cab was gone, the fireman 
was gone, but on my side of the run-board — at my 
very feet — lay the bodies of three little girls. 

I tried to get up, but found that my right leg was 
held fast by one of the cab braces that had bent over 
and jammed it. The sounds that came from the 
wreck were appalling, — yells and groans in the shrill 
voices of women and children, with occasionally a 
u 


290 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

deeper tone, showing where a man was. I did not 
know at first that I was hurt at all, but now my 
imprisoned leg began to pain me, then I felt a suffo- 
cating sensation within, as if a blood-vessel had been 
ruptured, and I was being drowned out with my own 
blood. My eyes became dim, my head swam, and I 
saw horrible sights. 

To this day I don’t know how much I saw and 
how much I imagined in the delirium that came over 
me. 

The next thing that I knew I was in hospital, a 
“sister ” bathing my forehead with cool water. I 
tried to ask where I was, but she told me to be quiet. 
It was a week before my wife was allowed to see me; 
she told me that over two hundred people on both 
trains had been killed outright, and many more than 
that injured. 

When the wrecking-train was called, the round- 
house foreman, who was called to go with it, dis- 
appeared, leaving his job and family behind ; and 
although we heard occasional rumors of his having 
been seen in various parts of the country, he never 
came back, and I do not think that his family ever 
heard from him afterwards. 

As soon as I was able to be moved, the inquest 
was held. I told what I knew, which was little 
enough. The coroner asked me if I didn’t know 
that the flanges on the leading wheels of the engine 
truck were worn dangerously thin ; and I told him 
that both Frank and myself had reported them re- 


I LOSE MY NERVE 


29I 


peatedly, and that the foreman had promised me 
faithfully to turn the truck round on my return from 
the last trip ; but as we had neither of us made a 
written report of the matter, and as the foreman 
could not be found, the company’s lawyers objected 
to the admission of that item of evidence, and 
thereby enabled their employers to squeak out of a 
great deal of the responsibility, with which they 
should properly have been charged. 

I had several ribs broken, and received internal 
injuries from the effects of which I have never fully 
recovered to this day. My fireman was killed, and 
his body completely dismembered, but no other em- 
ployee on our train, strange to say, was at all 
severely injured. The baggage-master was found 
buried under a huge pile of heavy trunks, which had 
been piled to the roof on each side of the car ; and 
although the car rolled over on its side, with the 
exception of a few bruises he was unhurt. 

I was exonerated from all blame both by the 
coroner and the company, and ordered to report for 
duty as soon as I felt able to do so ; but though I 
had never been the least bit squeamish over acci- 
dents before, this one took a strong hold on me. 
There were several families in the little town where 
I lived that had relatives killed and maimed in the 
wreck; and though I knew that I was not legally 
responsible, yet the thought that I might have pre- 
vented it, by refusing to take the engine out, tor- 
mented me so that I could hardly sleep nights. My 


292 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

appetite failed, and I became thin, weak, and nervous. 
Finally, during a conversation with my wife, I prom- 
ised her never to touch a locomotive throttle again, 
and with one exception I never have. I had a talk 
with the general superintendent, and he tried to 
laugh me out of my resolution ; but finding that I 
was determined, he advised me to take a month or 
two in the country and recuperate my nerves. 

This I did, but on returning home I found that 
my antipathy to the road, and everything pertaining 
to it, was stronger than ever. I had another talk 
with my old friend, and after trying in vain to per- 
suade me to return to work, he finally admitted that 
I would probably do better on another road where 
there would be nothing to remind me of the wreck. 
He asked me if I would like to go west again, and I 
told him that it was what I intended to do. 

“ Well,” said he, “ I may be able to help you a lit- 
tle ; I have a brother-in-law who is general manager 

of the Railroad, and I will give you a letter to 

him ; that will get you a job.” And he did. He gave 
me a splendid letter, and procured the indorsements 
of the president and general manager. Armed with 
this formidable document, I bade adieu to my best 
of chums, Frank; and leaving my family under his 
care, once more set my face towards the setting sun. 

On my arrival in St. Louis, I presented my letter, 

and was cordially received by General Manager , 

who asked what he could do for me in a manner 
that showed that he meant to do something. I told 


I LOSE MY NERVE 


293 


him that I should like a position as conductor, if he 
could place me. He thought a moment, and then 
said, “ Passenger, of course ? ” “ Preferably, yes, sir,” 
said I. “Well,” said he, “I think I will be able to 
fix you out in a very few days ; we are just making 
out a new time table, and are going to put on a new 
through train ; that will make a job for you. In the 
meantime, perhaps you had better go out and learn 
the road a bit.” 

To this I assented ; and in less than a week I 
was a full-fledged passenger conductor. I was highly 
pleased with my new position. The pay was good, 
the duties were light, and for the first time in my 
life I had an absolutely clean job. When I saw 
the engineer, with his more or less greasy over- 
clothes, crawling under his engine to try a wrench 
on eccentric bolts, and crawling out again with the 
sweat pouring down his face, I could not help say- 
ing to myself, “What a fool I was to do that so 
many years”; but I never let on to anybody that 
I had ever been anything but a conductor. 

The life was uneventful, and therefore pleasant. 
I secured a cosy cottage within easy walking dis- 
tance of the depot, had my family with me inside 
of two months, and everything ran along quietly 
with me for about two years. Frank had sold my 
house in the east, and took advantage of the pre- 
tence of settling with me to make us a very pleasant 
visit. Before his vacation expired, he received a 
notice that he had been appointed division master 


294 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


mechanic, and hurried home to enter upon his new 
duties. 

Shortly after this I was called on my day off to 
take out a special, — a frequent occurrence, as the 
land speculators were in the habit of giving free 
excursions occasionally to prospective purchasers. 
It was a hot day; and when I went ahead to speak to 
the engineer and see if he was ready, I noticed that 
he looked flushed and warm, but paid no attention, 
as it was quite natural that he should on such a 
day. We had a little talk concerning the trains 
and where we had better sidetrack, and it was 
agreed that we would not be able to make more than 
ten miles before we would have to take the switch for 
the first inward-bound train. When the passengers 
were all on, I gave the signal, and he pulled out with 
a jerk, slipping his drivers in a way that was irri- 
tating to an old engineer like myself. Before we 
were clear of the yard, he was going at a forty-mile 
gait, and the cars were thumping over the frogs and 
switches at a great rate. I wondered what he was 
going so fast for, because we had plenty of time 
to get to the switch ; and there was no possibility 
of our going any farther. When we struck out 
into the open country, the speed increased, until 
I remarked to the baggage-master that the engineer 
seemed to be in a devil of a hurry. Although I 
was not personally acquainted with the man, I knew 
that he was a regular freight runner, and should 
therefore have all the trains’ times at his fingers’ 


I LOSE MY NERVE 


295 


ends. But I couldn’t help watching the road as we 
flew by, and wondering what he was running so 
for. I looked at my watch, made a rapid mental 
calculation, and decided that he was trying for the 
next siding, eight miles further along. If he kept 
up the gait that he was going, — and it was an 
open question whether he could or not, — he would 
reach the switch five minutes before the opposing 
train was due, which was not time enough ; besides, 
a thousand and one things might happen to reduce 
his speed. And if the steam dropped five pounds, 
it would knock him out. What could he be think- 
ing of, I wondered. We were within an eighth of 
a mile of the near end of the siding, and I pulled 
the bell ; but he passed the switch without slacken- 
ing his speed, and paid not the slightest attention 
to my signal. I stepped into the smoker and pulled 
the air-valve wide open that set the Westinghouse 
brakes, and brought the train to a standstill just as 
the last car cleared the switch. I told the rear man 
to open the switch, so that we could back in, and 
jumped down on the ground to give the engineer 
the signal. As I came in sight of the cab, he stuck 
his head out of the window, and shouted to me, in 
a thick, unsteady voice, which explained at once 
what the trouble was, “ Say, did you pull the air on 

me ? you ” He called me everything but 

a decent white man. There was no time to blarney 
with him. I went back into the smoker and got the 
ventilator stick, which I concealed under my coat. 


296 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

I then told the head brakeman and baggage-master 
that the engineer was drunk, and I was going to 
take charge of the engine, and back the train in ; 
and I told the brakeman to come with me, and look 
out for the engineer when I should get him out of 
the cab ; and I told the baggage-master that I would 
blow three short whistles when I got control of the 
engine, in case I found that I was unable to relieve 
the brakes, and in that case he should crawl under 
the cars and bleed them off. I saw that neither of 
them relished the jobs that I had set them ; and I 
knew that by many of the men I was regarded as an 
interloper from the east, so there was a chance 
that they might be more than willing to see me 
stuck. However, this was a time for action, not 
words ; so, calling to the brakeman to come on, I 
again jumped off, on the left side, and, shouting to 
the rear man to go back with his flag, I ran quickly 
ahead to the engine, where I could hear the engineer 
vainly attempting to release the brake, and cursing 
away to himself and the fireman as I stepped lightly 
up into the tender. 

It is one of the unwritten laws of railroading 
that the conductor’s authority ceases at the back 
end of the tender, and nobody had ever insisted on 
the rigid recognition of that law more firmly than 
I myself when I ran engines ; so that I had every 
reason to expect anything but a pleasant reception. 
As I got up on the left side, neither of them saw 
me at first. The fireman was sitting on his seat, 




« 


































































4 




























































“ He nearly squelched the breath out of my body.” — p. 297 . 








I LOSE MY NERVE 


297 


watching the engineer and idly ringing the bell, 
while the engineer himself was just in the act of 
pulling the reverse lever over, to “ take the slack,” 
hoping, no doubt, to be able to start her in spite 
of the brakes. 

I let him get her in the back motion, and then 
seizing him by both shoulders, I settled back with 
all my might, dragging him from the foot-board 
down on top of myself. He was a big, fat brute, 
and nearly squelched the breath out of my body 
as he fell on top of me, the wet coal splashing from 
under us, as when a barrel is dropped into the 
water. It cost me a couple of minutes’ hard strug- 
gle to turn him over, but, having done so, I didn’t 
hesitate to give him a hearty rap with the venti- 
lator stick which quieted him at once ; then I looked 
for my valuable assistant. He was on the ground, 
looking on. “Get out ahead there and flag,” said 
I ; and away he went. Then, stepping up in the 
cab, I found, to my great relief, that I was able 
to let the brakes off from there, the air-pump hav- 
ing had time to get the pressure up while I had 
been arranging matters with the engineer ; so, tell- 
ing the fireman to get off and close the switch 
after me, I backed the train in and called my head 
flag. By this time, the engineer showed signs of 
returning consciousness ; so I found a piece of bell- 
cord in the tank-box, and, calling on the baggage- 
master and brakeman, we tied him and put him 
in the baggage car. By that time the opposing 


298 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

train had passed, and I started the train. The fire- 
man, who was not any too sober, here interfered, 
saying he wouldn’t fire for “no brass-bound con- 
ductor ! ” My blood was pretty well up now, so I 
jumped down in the tank and argued with him 
for about three minutes in a manner that convinced 
him that his easiest way was to do whatever the 
“brass-bound conductor” told him to. 

I stopped at the first telegraph office and sent 
back for an engineer. They sent me one, so that 
I only had to run the engine one way; but I was 
a sight for gods and men when I returned to the 
train. My coat was split up the back, and one 
sleeve torn entirely out. I was drenched from head 
to foot in the inky black water into which I had 
fallen in the tender; and had a bad cut in the 
back of my head, from which the blood had flowed 
copiously, contributing a variety to the otherwise 
sombre uniformity of my dirt. 

The engineer was, of course, discharged ; and the 
head brakeman, for having failed to assist me in 
capturing the engine, was jacked up for thirty days. 
As no one had seen the scrap between the fireman 
and me, and as he turned out to be a very decent 
fellow with a widowed mother to support, I omitted 
making any report against him. 


CHAPTER XIX 


CALLED TO THE GENERAL MANAGER’S OFFICE — IN 

CHARGE OF A BRANCH PUTTING THINGS IN 

ORDER FIVE YEARS’ HARD WORK BECOME GEN- 
ERAL SUPERINTENDENT ACCEPT A THIRD VICE- 
PRESIDENCY GENERAL MANAGER HANDLING A 

BIG STRIKE 

A couple of months after this, I was called to 
the general manager’s office, and he asked me if 
I was a telegrapher. I told him that while I didn’t 
pretend to be an operator, yet I had picked up 
enough of the art to be able to receive fairly good 
business. He said that was all that I should need, 
as there would be but little telegraphing to do 
where I was going. He then told me that the 
company had purchased a short road — about sixty 
miles long — connecting with another trunk line; 
and that, while they should probably run some 
main-line trains over it, as it had a fairly good 
business of its own, they should continue to oper- 
ate it very much as it had been done heretofore, — 
with its own motive power and rolling stock. 
“From the way you conducted yourself when you 
found that you had a drunken engineer on the 
head end the other day,” said he, “I am satisfied 
299 


300 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

that you are a man who can successfully cope with 
sudden and unexpected emergencies, and those are 
just the kind of men that I like to have about me. 

“ Now, I am going to send you up there to oper- 
ate that branch. You will receive general orders 
from this office, and we will let you know when 
we are going to send a train over your road; but 
as to the details of the operation, I shall leave 
that in your hands until I see whether you make 
a success of it or not. Of course, I don’t want 
you to make any radical changes without letting 
me know about it beforehand. Your principal duty 
will be to build up the business of the road; it is 
fairly good now, but I am convinced that under 
the right kind of management it could be largely 
increased. You will make your headquarters at 
this end ; and, for the present, you will have to do 
a great deal of the work yourself; that’s why I 
asked if you were a telegrapher; but as soon as 
you make your road of sufficient value, so that we 
can afford it, we will give you more help.” 

I admit that I was not overjoyed at my promotion. 
It took me away from home altogether, and the pros- 
pect of being every man’s jack, and working twenty- 
four hours a day, to say nothing of receiving more 
kicks than halfpence for my reward, was not alluring, 
especially when contrasted with my present easy and 
pleasant berth. However, we soon learn that rail- 
roads are not operated for the benefit of employees. 

I found my little road in a most demoralized condi- 


MY TURN AT LAST 


301 


tion. The engines and cars were badly in need of 
repairs, and there wasn't an engine of the whole three 
that could go over the sixty mile division without stop- 
ping half a dozen times to “ blow up.” Nor was there 
a car, either passenger or freight, that had a full set 
of brake-shoes, and other things accordingly. The 
conductors had been running the trains to suit them- 
selves, and as the conductor and engineer of each 
train lived near each other, their principal efforts had 
always been to get home at night, where they could 
lay over, train and all, until the next morning. There 
was a turnout about midway of the road, and as there 
could not be more than three trains on at a time, 
they easily kept track of each other, and all hands 
waited at the turnout until the arrival of the last 
train, when they proceeded on their way rejoic- 
ing. 

The first thing I did was to send for machinists 
and material to get my engines and cars in order. I 
then made out a regular time table, consisting of one 
passenger and two freight trains ; the passenger and 
through freight doubled the road every day, and the 
way freight went one way a day only. It wasn’t a 
very satisfactory service, but it was the best I could 
do with the material at hand, and it was such an 
immense improvement over the former method, — 
which had been what railroad men call a tri-weekly 
service, i.e. trains go up one week and try to get 
back the next, — that the people along the line were 
very well pleased; for at any rate they knew now 


302 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 

when they could get a train, or a car to ship their 
stuff in. 

I had some trouble at first with the fossils who had 
been running on the road for years, and disliked my 
innovations ; but after shifting a few of them out on 
to the main line, and filling their places with main- 
line men who knew no better than to obey orders, 
the rest recognized the fact that a new era had 
dawned on their little cross-country track, and gov- 
erned themselves accordingly. The natural result of 
bringing order out of chaos was that the business of 
the road improved wonderfully inside of six months, 
and also that the operating expenses decreased pro- 
portionately. 

During the second year of my incumbency, another 
passenger and two more freight trains were put on, 
necessitating the building of more sidings for passing 
points, and the little road flourished like a green bay 
tree. Although the general manager never said in 
so many words that he was pleased with my manage- 
ment, I felt satisfied that he was, for my requisitions 
for materials were always filled without a word of 
protest, and he voluntarily increased my personal 
staff until I was relieved from all manual labor, and 
was at liberty to devote my entire time and attention 
to the interests confided to my care. 

I now began to experience that dignified sense of 
pleasure which comes to a man in authority, and 
wondered how I could ever have been so blind to 
my own interests as to have regretted giving up 


MY TURN AT LAST 


303 


my train on the main line, to take charge of this 
branch. 

I remained in this position nearly five years, and 
during that time great improvements were made on 
my little road. The company finally made a con- 
tract whereby all the coal for the use of their loco- 
motives passed over the branch. This increased the 
business to such an extent, and I had to put in so 
many sidings, that I judged it would be more eco- 
nomical to double track the whole thing, and so 
represented to the general manager; but he was 
economically inclined, and though I showed him that 
it would have to be done in a few years, anyway, and 
that it was an unnecessary expense having engines 
and trains standing in side-tracks, waiting for an 
opportunity to go, he would not hear of it. 

Our general superintendent left the road about 
this time to accept a position with an eastern road, 
and, to my infinite surprise, I was elected to the 
vacant position. I was doubtful about accepting, 
but the general manager called me to his office, and 
we had a long talk. He told me that he had nomi- 
nated me for the place himself, because he had seen 
by my management of the branch that I had the 
trait which railroad companies value most highly ; 
namely, managerial ability. He told me not to be 
frightened at the magnitude of the job, but to apply 
the very same talents to the superintendence of the 
whole road that I had so successfully employed in 
my management of the branch, and he predicted 


304 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


that I should be successful. At the same time, he 
assured me that I might depend upon his hearty 
cooperation, and told me always to come to him for 
any advice that I might need when knotty points 
presented themselves. 

With such assurances of good-will and helpfulness 
on the part of my immediate superior, I felt embold- 
ened to accept the position, with its largely increased 
responsibilities, and for four years I served under 
the immediate eye of my venerable friend. 

He was one of the best railroad men that this 
country has ever produced, a perfect gentleman, and 
a true friend to me. I never knew him to hesitate 
a moment in giving his decision on any point, no 
matter how intricate it might be ; nor did I ever 
know him to render a decision the wisdom of which 
after events failed to confirm. He could see farther, 
and more deeply and clearly, into a complex question, 
affecting innumerable interests, than any man I ever 
knew. His judgment — rendered almost instantane- 
ously — seemed to be infallible. 

It was due to my close connection with him for 
so many years that I owe what little ability I have. 

After four years of apprenticeship and close study 
under this master mind, I had no hesitation in ac- 
cepting the position of third vice-president and gen- 
eral manager of this road, when it was offered me. 

On coming into the office, I found the road in 
rather bad shape, as compared with the one from 
which I had just come. There were abundant evi- 


MY TURN AT LAST 


305 


dences of loose management, if not of peculation, 
and I proceeded at once to straighten out the tangle 
in which I found it. 

The road had not been paying as well as its com- 
petitors for some time, and as a natural result in- 
vestors were withdrawing their capital, and the stock 
was falling. To reclaim a property when it is in this 
condition and put it upon a paying basis is a big con- 
tract. But that was the condition that confronted 
me, and I determined to make a success of it, if it 
was humanly possible. The first thing to do was to 
stop all the leaks, curtail to the last degree the 
operating expenses, and inaugurate a system of the 
most rigid economy, without crippling the efficiency 
of the road. 

For over a month I put in twelve and fourteen 
hours per day in my office, familiarizing myself with 
all the details of the road’s business. I found that 
by adding slightly to the work of some of the men, 
I could dispense entirely with the services of quite 
a number, thereby reducing the operating expenses a 
small percentage. 

I saw where a train could be advantageously taken 
off here and there, or two trains combined into one. 
I believed that by adding from one to five cars to 
some of the trains, I would be able to lay off a few 
locomotives and cabooses ; and so on, all along the 
line, I perceived many places where little economies 
might be practised, which would foot up quite a re- 
spectable total at the end of the year. Still the 


x 


306 THE GENERAL MANAGER’S story 

results were not altogether satisfactory, and I was 
reluctantly obliged to admit to myself that a slight 
reduction of salaries would be necessary in order to 
accomplish the task I had set myself, of putting the 
road on its feet. 

Knowing how unpopular such an act on the part 
of the management usually is, I tried to avoid it; 
but after looking the ground all over with the most 
careful scrutiny, I could see no other way out, and 
was in the very act of drawing up a reduced schedule 
of salaries, to be submitted to the president and 
board of directors with my report of the condi- 
tion of the road, and my recommendations thereon, 
when I received word from my private secretary 
that a delegation of the employees wished to see 
me. 

Although I was extremely busy, I ordered my 
clerks to pick up their papers and retire, for I have 
always held that the dignity of labor is entitled to 
the most prompt recognition. 

They entered, four as fine, honest, bronzed fellows 
as you could wish to see ; and as I looked over my 
desk at them, I remembered the time, years ago, 
when I had served on a similiar committee, and I 
sincerely hoped that they had not come to ask for 
anything that I should be unable to grant. 

I bade them a cordial welcome, and asked one of 
their number to introduce the committee, which he 
did. They were an engineer, conductor, fireman, 
and brakeman ; and they had come to ask for a ten 


MY TURN AT LAST 


307 


per cent increase in their salaries. They had copies 
of the schedules of pay on several other roads with 
them, which showed a slight average increase over 
what we were paying. I let them talk themselves 
out ; and then told them that I didn’t think that the 
road was in a condition to increase salaries just at 
present. I reminded them of the poor business 
which the road had been doing for some time, but 
they said that they were not to blame for that ; they 
had performed their duties faithfully, and were work- 
ing harder if anything than the men on the other 
roads, who were getting more pay than they were, 
and so on, and so on ; threshing the old familiar 
straw over and over again. 

I finally told them that I would lay their request 
before the board of directors, but held out no hopes 
to them ; they thanked me with rather poor grace 
and withdrew. 

I now hurried up my report ; the president called 
a special meeting of the board, and I laid it before 
them. I told them that as the men had asked for 
an increase of pay when a reduction was absolutely 
necessary to the existence of the road, they would 
probably strike when they received the notice. I 
argued that to be forewarned was to be forearmed, 
and guaranteed that if they would authorize me to 
spend a few thousands of dollars, I would not only 
defeat the strike, but equip the road with good men, 
who would be glad of a chance to work at the re- 
duced rates, for I knew that in consequence of the 


3°8 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


recent failure of two large strikes there were plenty 
of good railroad men idle. 

I had hard work to convince the board of the ad- 
visability of spending so much money for such a 
purpose, but having shown them that I could make 
up the sum in two months’ difference in the rate of 
pay, they finally sanctioned the expenditure, and told 
me to go ahead. 

I now knew that the crucial test of my ability con- 
fronted me. If I lost & strike, my position would 
very quickly follow it, and my prospects in life be 
forever damned ; for the road was badly enough off 
now, and as it was by my advice that the strike was 
to be allowed to take place, it lay entirely with me to 
make it a success for the company. 

For the next few days I kept the wires hot with 
messages to the general managers of all the roads in 
the country, asking for the addresses of good reliable 
men, whom they knew to have been out of employ- 
ment long enough, so that they would be willing to 
accept employment in a strike. I soon had a list 
that would have manned the road twice over. I 
selected at haphazard twice as many as I wanted ; 
and sent them a stereotyped letter, offering them 
employment, and stating frankly the conditions, and 
rates of pay ; but guaranteeing them free transporta- 
tion, and permanent employment for such as were 
selected, provided they proved worthy. 

In nearly every instance the terms were accepted. 
I then wired to the several roads, requesting them to 


MY TURN AT LAST 


309 


furnish the necessary transportation, and send the 
bill to us. They invariably furnished free transpor- 
tation. 

In the meantime, the committee called on me 
again and asked for the decision of the board. 
When I told them that it was found impossible to 
raise salaries at this time, they went away very much 
disgruntled. 

I chartered a cheap hotel, and as fast as my men 
arrived I put them into it. When they were all here, 
the general superintendent and myself called on them, 
and picked out ten more crews than enough to man 
the road, and sent the rest home, grumbling that 
they had been swindled, and saying that they hoped 
I would lose the strike. 

The next day I called a meeting of all my super- 
intendents and gave them their orders. Each one 
was to be furnished with three more full crews than 
enough to man his division. They were to be given 
regular tickets, so that they could ride on trains with- 
out exciting the suspicions of the old hands, and were 
to be paid their wages while learning the road. 
Spotters were to be sent on the trains with them 
to see that they did not become familiar with the 
crews. Of course, they were to be lodged and fed 
at the company’s expense ; and some of them were 
so shabbily dressed that we had to buy clothing for 
them, so that they might not attract attention, or 
excite suspicion by continually riding in the pas- 
senger coaches. 


3io 


THE GENERAL MANAGER’S STORY 


At the end of one month the men all reported that 
they knew the road thoroughly. The next day I is- 
sued my notice of the reduction of pay ; and, in order 
that it might not miss fire, I made it much heavier 
than I intended that it should be. 

The committee called on me that afternoon. They 
were no longer respectful in their demeanor, but 
talked rather loudly. They asked me if I intended 
to starve them altogether. I told them that I had 
not thought of them at all. I said that the road 
could not afford to pay the wages that it had been 
paying, hence a reduction had been decided upon ; 
but that it was not incumbent on them to accept it 
if they found it unsatisfactory, any more than it was 
incumbent on the road to pay them higher wages than 
its business would warrant. 

“By G— d ! ” said the brakeman, “we won’t accept 
it ; we’ll tie your d — d old road up — we’ll strike.” 

“Strike, if you wish,” said I; “that’s your busi- 
ness.” 

“ Yes, we will strike, you d — d old — ” 

Here I touched a button, and a couple of special 
officers entered and escorted the refractory committee 
out. The next day they struck ; and the new men 
took the trains out nearly on time. On the third 
day the road was running as smoothly as it ever did ; 
and I was continually denying myself to ex-strikers 
who desired to be reemployed. 

There were quite a number of the old hands who 
claimed that they had taken no part in the strike 


MY TURN AT LAST 


31 1 

whatever; and therefore they thought that they 
should have been retained in the company’s service ; 
but I deemed it best for the morale of the equipment 
that none of the old men should be retained to cause 
heart-burnings and jealousies, so I let them all go. 

With the exception of a few cases of drunkenness, 
burned boilers, and slight collisions, the new men did 
first rate. The superintendent soon weeded out the 
unreliable ones, and then they were as good as could 
be wished. 

Six months later, the business of the road not 
having increased satisfactorily, I gave them another 
slight reduction ; they accepted it in a proper spirit, 
and have never since asked to have their pay re- 
stored. 

Within two years of my taking charge of the 
property the road was on a paying basis ; and I 
flatter myself that to-day our stock compares favor- 
ably with the best in the market. 


FINIS 



ON MANY SEAS. 

THE LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF A YANKEE SAILOR. 

BY 

HERBERT ELLIOTT HAMBLEN 

EDITED BY HIS FRIEND 

WILLIAM STONE BOOTH. 
i2mo. Cloth. $1.50. 


COMMENTS OF THE PRESS. 

“ Every line of this hits the mark, and to anyone who 
knows the forecastle and its types the picture appeals with 
the urgency of old familiar things. All through his four 
hundred and more pages he is equally unaffected and 
forcible, equally picturesque. To go through one chapter 
is to pass with lively anticipation to the next. His book 
is destined to be remembered.” — New York Tribune. 

“The book reads like a romance, but is at the same 
time realistic history, before which the fancy ships and the 
fancy sailors of the novelist are pale and faded.” 

— Baltimore Sun. 

“The charm of the book is its simplicity and truth. 
The author, as I happen to know, can spin thrilling yarns 
by the hour, and this book of his is simply one long yarn 
of his life. A seaman every inch of him, he writes as 
only a sailor can. No landsman, no amateur yachtsman, 
could write a book like this. The entire book bears the 
stamp of truth, and in this age of literary shams that is a 
crowning merit.” — New York Herald. 


THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, 

66 Fifth Avenue, New York. 


YANKEE SHIPS AND YANKEE 
SAILORS: Tales of J 8 12. 


BY 

JAMES BARNES, 

Author of " Naval Engagements of the War of 1812 ." 

“ A Loyal Traitor',' “ For King and Country etc. 

With Numerous Illustrations by R. F. ZOGBAUM and 
CARLTON T. CHAPMAN. 

Crown 8vo. Cloth, gilt top. $1.50. 


COMMENTS. 

“ There are passages in this book which are as strong 
and captivating as the work of the best writers of the 
day ; to mariners and those who love the sea and ships 
these tales will appeal irresistibly. 

“ Each story is a gem by itself. It is told with a direct- 
ness and a strength which carries conviction. All are 
based upon actual occurrences, Mr. Barnes tells us, and 
while some of the incidents related may come under the 
head of tradition, yet most of them are historical facts, and 
he has worked up each tale so cleverly, so compactly, so 
entertainingly, that they may, one and all, be taken for 
models of their kind.” — Seaboard. 

“Good stories well told are those of ‘Yankee Ships and 
Yankee Sailors.’ They deal with the gallant defenders of 
such vessels as the Chesapeake , the Vixen , the fiery little 
IVasf, and grand 1 Old Ironsides .’ All the stories are 
told in a spirited style that will quicken the blood and the 
love of country in every Yankee heart.” 

— New England Magazine. 


THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, 

66 Fifth Avenue, New York. 

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